The Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has confirmed suffering a data breach after it was targeted in a ransomware attack earlier this year.
The attack on the Pennsylvania OAG came to light in August, when the organization announced that a cyberattack had disrupted its website, email accounts, and phone lines. Service outages lasted for roughly three weeks.
The OAG confirmed in late August that it had been targeted in a ransomware attack that involved the deployment of file-encrypting malware, but said no ransom had been paid.
The Inc Ransom group took credit for the attack on the Pennsylvania OAG on September 21, claiming to have stolen 5.7 TB of data and gaining “access to internal network of FBI”.
The hackers allegedly obtained information from a wide range of investigative units within the attorney general’s office, as well as details on the organization’s use of Cellebrite software, which government agencies use to extract and analyze data from mobile devices and computers.
In a data incident notice published on Friday, the Pennsylvania OAG said its investigation confirmed potential access to certain files, including ones storing personal information such as names, Social Security numbers, and medical information.
It’s unclear how many individuals are impacted by the data breach.
“We have no evidence of the misuse, or attempted misuse, of any potentially involved information,” the notice reads.
While this may be technically accurate based on the company’s limited scope of internal evidence, from a cybersecurity standpoint, these types of statements are unconvincing, considering that ransomware groups typically publish stolen data or share it privately in closed cybercriminal circles.
The Pennsylvania OAG has not shared any technical information on the attack, but cybersecurity researcher Kevin Beaumont reported in September that the organization was likely penetrated via the exploitation of a Citrix Netscaler vulnerability dubbed CitrixBleed2.
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