Page 6 - Spok Inside Track

CYBERSECURITY

Ransom Gangs Pressuring Victims’ Customers

Cybercriminal gangs have been targeting information technology systems at hundreds of hospitals, clinics, and medical care
facilities across the United States.

Some ransomware gangs are deploying a pressure tactic to push more victim organizations into paying an extortion
demand. This may include emailing the victim’s customers and partners directly, warning that their data will be leaked to
the dark web unless they can convince the victim firm to pay up.
At Spok, we must always assume worst case scenario that any data point that either resides on-premise or is shared with a
company could eventually be hacked, lost, leaked, stolen, or sold. In order to reduce the risk of data loss, we must always
consider the following concepts before sharing data.
• Purpose Limitation – Data is collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further Processed in a
manner that is incompatible with those purposes
• Data Minimization – Data is adequate, relevant, and limited to what is absolutely necessary in relation to the
purposes for which it is Processed

Report suspected scams and questionable emails to TOC@spok.com or contact Spok Technology
Operations Center (TOC) 24/7 972-801-0000