by medicaltechont | Feb 28, 2022 | Cloud, data, Electronic Medical Records, hackers
Hacking incidents still dominate the major health data breaches being reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the first months of 2022 by far, with only one other type of breach appearing on the federal tally so far this year.
McQuiggan counseled all organizations, including healthcare providers, to reduce the risk of compromise by investing in their employees and providing an engaging cybersecurity training program that will help them spot social engineering scams, such as phishing emails.
“Organizations that suffer a data breach discover the costs to recover have a significant financial impact,”
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by medicaltechont | Nov 25, 2017 | Uncategorized
Ransomware payments in 2017 will hit a record $2 billion, according to a new research from the cybersecurity firm Bitdefender.
That figure would make 2017 the most costly year ever for ransomware, doubling the $1 billion paid out by ransomware victims in 2016 and skyrocketing above the $24 million paid in 2015. The upward trend will likely continue into 2018 as malware becomes more sophisticated and difficult to stop.
Read more at https://www.cyberscoop.com/ransomware-2-billion-bitdefender-gpu-encryption/
by medicaltechont | Oct 22, 2016 | Cloud, Hardware, Security, Software, Technology
Cyber-warfare – Yesterday a massive DDoS attack took down a large portion of the Internet leaving sites offline or at dial-up speed. At first it was thought that the issue was neutralized, however as midday approached another massive attack rendered major sites unavailable. The attack was targeted at a major domain DNS server provider, however the ramifications to the attack were seen to be much more substantial. Sites like Twitter, Netflix, Reddit, PayPal, Kijiji, Pinterest and even the entire PlayStation Network were down or struggling. This was only a small portion of the list. At the moment we still do not know who initiated the attack, however it’s thought that IoT (Internet of Things) devices may actually be the an accessory to the crime. With so many providers affected we now need to take time analyze how this may affect online EMR providers in the future. Can IoT malware attacks and other types render cloud based applications offline? How does this affect patient care?
To read more about the attack that shutdown a large portion of the Internet click on the links below:
https://www.wired.com/2016/10/internet-outage-ddos-dns-dyn/
https://threatpost.com/mirai-fueled-iot-botnet-behind-ddos-attacks-on-dns-providers/121475/
by medicaltechont | Apr 25, 2016 | e-Health, eHealth, EHR
Over the course of 2015, countless data breaches occurred within hospital networks, health insurers, physicians’ offices, and other organizations in the healthcare industry. In fact, Community Health Systems, Premera and Anthem were just a few of the most notable names who made cybersecurity headlines last year. More than 94 million records were exposed as the result of attacks varying in sophistication, which ranged from standard, employee-targeted breaches, to more complex methods carried out by scheming hackers.
It’s widely agreed upon that hackers target industries that hold valuable, sensitive and extremely personal data. It follows, then, that the healthcare industry is one of those targeted sectors, and has been for quite some time, due to its treasure trove of private information including mailing addresses, family histories, medical conditions, social security numbers and much more.
But with attacks increasing in both size and complexity, it’s time to more closely examine the healthcare industry, in particular electronic health record (EHR) providers.
Read more at http://hitconsultant.net/2016/04/11/preparing-ehr-vendors-cyber-threats/
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
