US Fertility, the largest fertility network in the United States, announced that some of its systems were encrypted in a ransomware attack that hit the company in September. US Fertility’s network includes 55 locations in 10 states that completed nearly 25,000 IVF cycles in 2018 through its clinics and more than 80 physicians.
In total, more than 130,000 babies have been born through IVF in the USF network. USF said in its official statement that on September 14, it experienced an IT security incident in which its systems were infected with malware. It added that through the immediate investigation and response, it was determined that data contained on various servers and workstations connected to domain were encrypted by ransomware.
As BleepingComputer reports, US Fertility hired external security experts immediately after discovering the attack, and also took the affected servers and workstations offline. USF was able to restore them with the help of specialized experts and reconnect them to the network on September 20th.
The fertility center network also notified law enforcement of the ransomware attack and continues to cooperate with them throughout the investigation into the incident.
Additionally, USF noted in a breach that forensic investigation confirms that a hacker stole a small number of files after gaining unauthorized access to the systems between August 12 and September 14, 2020, when the ransomware was executed.
After a review of all files accessed during the attack that concluded on November 13, USF found that the files stolen by the unknown ransomware group contained various types of information about each affected person, including names, addresses, dates of birth, MPI numbers, and social security numbers.
USF has set up a dedicated call center, accessible via a toll-free helpline at 855-914-4699, Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. EST.
