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Virginia says no to ransom demands

The state of Virginia has refused to yield to demands from a hacker who compromised the online security of the state's prescription drug database and stole details of patients.

Data belonging to eight million patients including their prescription details and social security numbers was stolen by crooks, who deleted the original records and went on to demand $10 million (£6.6 million) in exchange for a copy.

However, it has emerged that the state had backed up all the information elsewhere and patients can still get their prescriptions, even though the system that run the operation has been closed since the breach.

According to the Associated Press, the state's governor Tim Kaine has said that the money will not be paid to the person or group behind the theft.

Details of the incident first came to light when leaked documents website Wikileaks.org published the demands that had been left on the Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program website.

Both the state's police and the FBI are investigating the matter, which could leave the patients at risk of ID theft.

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