An extortion demand posted on WikiLeaks seeks $ 10 million to return more than 8 million patient records and 35 million prescriptions allegedly stolen from Virginia Department of Health Professions . The note reads : " ATTENTION VIRGINIA I have your sh * * ! In * my * possession , right now , are 8,257,378 patient records and a total of 35,548,087 prescriptions . Also , I made an encrypted backup and deleted the original . Unfortunately for Virginia , their backups seem to have gone missing , too . Uhoh :( " The note goes on to demand $ 10 million within seven days , presumably from the time the data was apparently seized on April 30 , in exchange for the key to decrypt the encrypted backup . " If by the end of 7 days , you decide not to pony up , I 'll go ahead and put this baby out on the market and accept the highest bid , " the note says . It 's not immediately clear whether this note is genuine . The Virginia DHP has n't responded to repeated calls and e - mail messages seeking comment . However , a notice posted on the DHP Web site on Monday morning acknowledged that the site " is currently experiencing technical difficulties which affect computer and e - mail systems . " A spokesperson for the Virginia Attorney General 's Office said the agency could neither confirm nor deny any knowledge of an extortion demand . A note sent to the Yahoo Mail address listed in the ransom demand also has gone unanswered . Extortion demands of this sort have become relatively common in data breach cases . Last October , for instance , Express Scripts , a prescription drug management company based in St. Louis , received a letter that threatened the release of millions of patient records . A month earlier , a man from Solana Beach , Calif. , was arrested for allegedly hacking into a Maserati dealership Web site , accessing customer data , and then threatening to release the information unless the company paid him . The attack technique -- capturing data , encrypting it , then selling access to the former owner -- has become popular enough to earn its own name : cryptoviral extortion . ;