Chinese hacker behind ransomware attack on MacKay Hospital others CIB Focus Taiwan

pTaipei April 3 CNA The Criminal Investigation Bureau CIB on Wednesday said it had identified the suspect behind the hacking and attempted extortion of MacKay Memorial Hospital as a 20yearold Chinese man but gave little indication as to whether it expected Chinas government to pursue the caseppTaipeis MacKay Memorial Hospital was hit by a ransomware attack on Feb 6 by a hacker using the alias Crazyhunter which paralyzed the hospitals computer systems and demanded payment in return Lin Chienlung 林建隆 head of the CIBs HighTech Crime Center said at a news conferenceppFollowing the hacking attack MacKay Hospital reported the breach to Taipei police who in turn notified the CIB which set up a joint team with Taipei prosecutors to investigate the case Lin saidppAfter the hospital refused to pay the ransom patient data stolen in the attack was put up for sale in an online forum frequented by hackers on Feb 28 Lin saidppOfficials investigating the case found that Crazyhunter had been involved in a total of 11 hacking attacks in Taiwan in February and March which also victimized other hospitals schools and listed companiesppBy analyzing IP data hacking techniques and the ransomware used CIB investigators identified Crazyhunter as a 20yearold employee of a cyber security company in Zhejiang Province China surnamed Lo 羅 while also collecting other digital evidence related to his illicit financial flowsppThe CIB said Lo had even set up a website on the dark web displaying his hacking targets and how much money he had extorted from them with the purpose of sowing fear among the Taiwanese public and undermining social orderppAs Los alleged actions violated several laws including extortion and offenses against computer security under the Criminal Code and violations of the Personal Data Protection Act he was referred to Taipei prosecutors to have a warrant put out for his arrest the CIB saidppAccording to the CIB prosecutors will also use the appropriate crossstrait channels to send evidence of Los criminal activity to Chinas Ministry of Public SecurityppBy Huang Liyun and Matthew Mazzetta ppEnditemASGp