Patients Extorted Over Photos Sue Doctors for Security Failures

Pilfered snapshots of patients baring their bodies ahead of life-saving cancer operations and plastic surgeries are unexpectedly landing in the vast landscape of the public internet after cyberattacks, as hackers seek new ways to turn a profit.

Campaigns to extort victims during ransomware attacks against health-care providers are evolving, according to lawsuits and Bloomberg Law interviews with cybersecurity attorneys and threat researchers. No longer satisfied with targeting hospitals and clinics alone, cyber criminals are directly targeting patients, demanding payments as modest as $50 to prevent the publication of intimate photos and sale of other sensitive medical records on the dark ...