Bengaluru: ‘Hacker’ demands Bitcoins from hospital, threatens to leak ‘morphed’ pics

Bengaluru: A private hospital in western Bengaluru claimed that their computer and email IDs were hacked and the hacker demanded $950 to be sent to their Bitcoin wallet, a failure of which the morphed explicit photographs of doctors and nurses would be shared on social media. The incident came to light on February 25 after the management of the Shobha Hospital in Vijayanagar filed a police complaint.

In his complaint, Dr Thandaveshwara, the hospital’s managing director (MD), alleged that on February 14, some unknown person “hacked the hospital’s computer, email address and retrieved passwords”.

The complainant also claimed that on February 25, some doctors and staff in the hospital received an email demanding them to send $950 to a Bitcoin wallet. “The email threatened to morph the photographs of the hospital doctors and staff and upload them on social media if the demands were not met.”

A well-placed source in the hospital revealed that the emails were sent on three separate days: February 14, 22 and 25.

“The initial emails went unnoticed as the email provider had flagged it,” the source, who was unauthorized to comment on the record, told DH. “Some of them even marked the email as spam.”

On February 25, a few of the staff and consultants received another email to their personal and official IDs claiming that “your system was hacked and passwords were retrieved”. 

“The email also contained a Bitcoin wallet address,” the source said. “The incident came to light when staff began discussing the emails. So far, no one transferred any money nor have we learnt of the photographs being shared on social media. The hospital and patients' records are safe. We just received the email.”

A case was registered on February 27 under Section 66C (punishment for identity theft) of the Information Technology (IT) Act at the West Cyber Economic and Narcotics (CEN) Crime police station. 

A police officer said that the investigators were gathering evidence to verify if the hacking occurred.  “The analysis is underway by experts,” the officer told DH, adding that investigations were on.