Canadian Nurses Association confirmed data theft after Snatch leaked 37GB

The Canadian Nurses Association, the national professional body representing close to half a million nurses, confirmed in September 2023 that data had been stolen from it in an intrusion earlier in the year.

The association said the security incident occurred on April 3, 2023. Operations were not interrupted, although some systems were affected. It said it had immediately launched an investigation, engaged outside experts and notified law enforcement as a precaution. By September the association said the investigation was complete, that members affected by the incident were being notified, and that it was working with partners to implement enhanced security measures.

Two groups had claimed the attack in May: Nokoyawa, a ransomware operation, and Snatch. On September 1, 2023 the Snatch operation published roughly 37 gigabytes of association data on its leak site. The association did not describe which categories of information were involved, and no count of affected members was published.

Attribution was muddled. The people running the Snatch leak site told DataBreaches.net that no ransomware or encryption had been used against the association, and said on Telegram that they were not the long-running Snatch ransomware gang. That claim was complicated by the fact that both operations used the same leak site address.