Saitama Health Promotion Foundation: ransomware on its X-ray reading system puts checkup images at risk

On 31 January 2024 the Saitama Health Promotion Foundation, which runs health checkups for about 400,000 people a year in Saitama Prefecture, said its X-ray image reading system had been accessed without authorization on 29 January. According to the Saitama Shimbun, images and other data were encrypted, a ransom was demanded, and the ransomware was LockBit. The investigation found that personal data such as X-ray images taken from fiscal 2017 to 2023 in municipal cancer screening, workplace checkups, school checkups and tuberculosis contact checkups at public health centres may have leaked. No trace of a leak was found, but theft could not be ruled out. Saitama Prefecture said 9,388 of its staff and mutual aid members were affected, and Saitama City 3,208 people from tuberculosis checkups (chest X-rays with names, sex, exam dates and more).