by medicaltechont | Apr 30, 2016 | Medical Records, Security, Technology
As was summarized in this publication’s introduction to the first article in this two-part series on the ransomware crisis, published on April 18, ransomware has blossomed into a crisis-level phenomenon recently in U.S. healthcare. The first nationally reported mainstream media news story in this drama was that around Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. On Friday, February 12, NBC4News, the local affiliate of the NBC network in Los Angeles, reported in its noon and evening broadcasts, and then online, this story: “Hollywood Hospital ‘Victim of Cyber Attack.’” And since that moment, ransomware attacks have rarely been out of the mainstream media headlines, with revelations of attacks that have brought down electronic health record (EHR) and other clinical and operational information systems at the 10-hospital Columbia, Md.-based MedStar Health (first media report March 28), as well as at Methodist Hospital in Henderson, Ky. (first news report March 21), Alvarado Hospital Medical Center in San Diego, and Chino (Calif.) Valley Medical Center and Desert Valley Hospital in Victorville, Calif. (news stories on March 31), and Kings Daughters Health in Marion, Ind. (first news report Apr. 1).
Read more at http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/article/facing-ransomware-crisis-what-healthcare-it-leaders-need-do-right-now
by medicaltechont | Apr 27, 2016 | eHealth, EHR, hackers, Privacy, Security, Software
The growing concern with ransomware attacks at hospitals is provisionally a healthcare IT problem, but as the number of such attacks grows, it will quickly become a financial one as well.
Just a single ransom sum has been disclosed: Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles paid the equivalent of about $17,000 in bitcoin to free up its computer systems last month.
That may not have been a wise move: Steve King, chief operating officer with Netswitch Technology Management, a Northern California consulting firm that focuses on healthcare IT and security issues, told me last month that paying ransoms would set a precedent that would embolden hackers looking for paydays.
“The more they comply with these ransom demands, the more frequently we’re going to get these kinds of attacks,” King told me. He suggested it might be preferable for some hospitals to simply replace their existing IT systems than succumb to ransoms.
Read more at http://www.fiercehealthfinance.com/story/ransomware-attacks-hospitals-need-weigh-bottom-line-or-just-take-some-basic/2016-03-28
by medicaltechont | Apr 23, 2016 | Canada, Electronic Medical Records, Healthcare, Hospitals, Medical Records, Ontario, Security, Software
Important Notice:
As we have previously indicated, on March 30, 2016, the Grandview Medical Centre experienced a computer malfunction. As a result, and despite our extensive recovery efforts, some data entered into our electronic medical records has been lost.
Please rest assured that there has been no unauthorized access to your personal health information as a result of this incident.
We are currently in the process of determining the extent of the data loss as well as which patients have been affected by this unfortunate event. We will be notifying affected patients as soon as possible. We sincerely apologize for this occurrence and appreciate your patience as we identify the full extent of the loss and those affected patients.
Read more at https://www.facebook.com/gmcfht/
by medicaltechont | Apr 23, 2016 | Cloud, Security, Technology
With the “Cloud” getting ever more prevalent it is increasingly coming under more attack. It has become the option for Malware creators who want to create havoc. The question is “how safe is your data from online predators”? Will you become liable for a breach? Read this great article from Forbes magazine below.
How To Determine If You Can Trust Cloud Security
Will 2016 be the year security stops being a reason to avoid public clouds? Because, face it, by now established cloud vendors have likely invested more in security than you can hope to duplicate in-house. But when you’re used to pulling your own security levers, how do you let go of some of that control?
What we need is the cloud security version of a trust fall.
You may have taken part in this team-building exercise: You fall backward into the arms of a coworker while trusting that they’ll catch you before your khakis-clad behind hits the ground. It’s easier to take that plunge when your colleagues have given you reasons to trust them: They step up when you need a hand at work, they have built a solid reputation, they have your back when things go awry.
Read more at http://www.forbes.com/sites/oracle/2016/04/19/how-to-determine-if-you-can-trust-cloud-security/#11c297406c78
by medicaltechont | Feb 27, 2016 | EHR, Electronic Medical Records, Hospitals, Medical Records, Security, United States
Ransomware has seriously turned on to a noxious game of Hackers to get paid effortlessly.
Once again the heat was felt by the Los Angeles-based Presbyterian Medical Center when a group of hackers had sealed all its sensitive files and demanded $17,000 USD to regain the access to those compromised data.
The devastation of the compromised files can be pitched as:
- Compromised emails
- Lockout Electronic Medical Record System [EMR]
- Encrypted patient data
- Unable to carry CT Scans of the admitted patients
- Ferried risky patients to nearby hospitals
As the situation was grown out of wild, the hospital paid 40 Bitcoins (Roughly US $17,000) to the Ransomware Criminals to resume their medical operations after gaining the decryption keys.
“The quickest and most efficient way to restore our systems and administrative functions was to pay the ransom and obtain the decryption key,” the hospital CEO Allen Stefanek said in a letter.
All the electronic medical system were restored back soon after unlocking the encrypted file locks.
The Ransomware had stolen the nights of many network administrators, as they would be often blamed to fight up this nasty threat; instead of blaming staffs who click the illegit links in their e-mail.
http://thehackernews.com/2016/02/ransomware-medical-record.html?utm_source=THNLS&utm_medium=BelowLS&utm_campaign=LS
http://hollywoodpresbyterian.com/default/assets/File/20160217%20Memo%20from%20the%20CEO%20v2.pdf
by medicaltechont | Jan 3, 2016 | Canada, Privacy, Security, Technology, The Internet
Canada is lagging behind the U.S., Britain and other countries in defending citizens and businesses against malicious hackers and cyber-criminals, say numerous groups involved in trying to police the internet.
“We’re failing, we’re falling behind,” warns Katherine Thompson of the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance, one of Canada’s largest private-sector high-tech advocacy groups.
“We cannot continue down the path that we’re on right now,” she told CBC News. “We just went through a very long federal election where not one of the major party leaders discussed cyber-security.”
Click here to read more.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/canada-cybercrime-hacking-seglins-1.3312153
