Hackers threaten to publish stolen data from Planned Parenthood of Montana

Planned Parenthood of Montana on Wednesday reported a “cybersecurity incident” that was first discovered on August 28, according to a new report from Cyberscoop. The health organization had around 93 gigabytes of data stolen by hackers linked to RansomHub. They are reportedly giving Planned Parenthood until September 11 to pay an undisclosed amount or all data will be published online.

Martha Fuller, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Montana, said in a statement to EM360Tech that the organization “immediately implemented our incident response protocols, including taking portions of our network offline as a proactive security measure.”

It is not immediately clear what kind of data was stolen, and it is not known whether patient records were affected. Planned Parenthood provides a wide range of health services, but the general perception of Americans usually associates the organization only with providing abortion care. Whatever is ultimately leaked, if it actually happens, will almost certainly become a political football in today’s highly politicized environment.

Launched in February 2024, RansomHub operates on a “ransomware-as-a-service” model. According to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), it encrypts and exfiltrates data from at least 210 known victims. These 2010 victims were located in some of the most sensitive areas of the nation’s infrastructure and all other sectors that contribute to the smooth functioning of society, including “water and wastewater, information technology, government services and facilities, health and public health, emergency services, food and agriculture, financial services, commercial facilities, critical manufacturing, transportation and communications, critical infrastructure sectors,” according to CISA.

While Planned Parenthood confirmed RansomHub’s claim that it hacked the healthcare group, it did not confirm or deny that RansomHub was actually behind the attack.

“We are aware of the RansomHub post and want to assure our community that we take this matter very seriously,” Fuller said. “We have reported this incident to federal authorities and will assist in their investigation.”

Abortion is a vital issue in American life, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 2022 to overturn 50 years of legal precedent by striking down the federal right to abortion recognized in Roe v. Wade. The Dobbs decision was a disaster for human rights in the U.S., and many Americans are understandably angry that their rights have been stripped away.

For this reason, many political experts believe that abortion will be a key factor in the November election. After all, former President Donald Trump was instrumental in eliminating these rights by appointing three Supreme Court justices whose views are completely outside the mainstream. Trump is currently trailing his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris, who explicitly supports abortion rights, in the crucial swing states that will decide the election.

Planned Parenthood said Wednesday that the organization is working to restore its systems, but there is no timetable for when that might happen.

“We are grateful to our IT staff and cybersecurity partners who are working around the clock to securely restore the affected systems as quickly as possible and who are tirelessly investigating the cause and extent of the incident,” Fuller said. “This investigation is ongoing.”

Planned Parenthood of Montana did not immediately respond to questions Thursday. Gizmodo will update this post when we receive a response.