Sensitive medical data belonging to almost half a million French citizens has been stolen and leaked online, according to an investigation carried out by the French newspaper “Libération” in collaboration with the French blog “Zataz” which publishes news on the cybersecurity.
The exposed data, which can be accessed from multiple sites, includes names, phone numbers and postal addresses belonging to around 500,000 French citizens. In some cases, it is accompanied by information such as social security numbers, dates of birth, blood type, health insurance providers and medical treatments.
According to Libération, the data was stolen from around 30 different medical laboratories located mainly in the northwestern region of France. The newspaper also reported that the leaked information corresponds to samples taken between 2015 and October 2020, a period during which all the laboratories were using a specific type of medical software developed by Dedalus Healthcare Systems Group. However, Dedalus COO Didier Neyrat told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that it is not certain that the company’s software was the only reason for this security incident.
Furthermore, Zataz journalist Damien Bancal reported that anyone can find this data in seven different places on the Internet. He added that the stolen data ended up in the hands of malicious hackers, who intended to sell it via Telegram. However, one of them leaked the information himself after a disagreement with the rest of his team.
As Infosecurity Magazine reports, Bancal suspects that the leaked information is not the only stolen data that has fallen into the hands of hackers. On the contrary, he believes that the malicious actors are actually in possession of much more sensitive and confidential information.
The security incident comes after an announcement by the French that the data of 50,000 doctors and medical staff in the country was being sold online on a hacking forum. Among the information exposed were usernames and passwords.
