Henry Schein restores US e-commerce platform following a BlackCat ransomware attack

Henry Schein, a leading U.S. healthcare solutions provider, said it has restored its e-commerce platform in the United States following a cyber attack it suffered earlier this year.

In a security incident notice posted on its website on 15th November, Henry Schein said it identified a cyber security incident on October 14 that affected portions of its manufacturing and distribution businesses.

The healthcare solutions provider said it immediately launched an investigation with assistance from third party cyber security experts to understand the nature and scope of the incident. It also took precautionary action including taking parts of its internal network offline to limit the spread of the malware, which led to temporary disruption of some business operations.

On November 13, the company sent out notices to both customers and suppliers to share the details of an investigation it conducted following the cyber security incident.

“Henry Schein is now aware that a data breach has occurred. Customer and personal identifiable information [PII] such as bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and other sensitive information may have been exposed to third parties,” Henry Schein said in its letter.

The company added that there is a possibility that the compromised financial information has been misused by threat actors. It has asked all affected parties to remain vigilant and change the passwords of their bank and credit card accounts and review recent transactions for any suspicious activity.

In another update posted on its website on 27th November, Henry Schein said it has restored its e-commerce platform in the United States and expects to restore affected platforms in Canada and Europe in due course.

“Henry Schein has restored its ecommerce platform in the U.S. Our ecommerce platforms in Canada and Europe are expected to follow shortly,” the company said.

The notorious BlackCat/ALPHV ransomware group recently claimed responsibility for targeting the healthcare provider’ systems and listed the company as a victim on its data leak site. The group claimed to be in possession of around 35 terabytes of stolen data and gave Henry Schein a deadline of November 3 to pay a ransom.

It’s not clear whether the company paid the ransom to the hacker group but several cyber security researchers have noted that Henry Schein has been removed from the leak site of BlackCat/ALPHV ransomware group.