Increase in Targeted Attacks Aimed at Politically Motivated Sabotage and Subversion
Annual Threat Report from Symantec details how simple tactics led to unprecedented outcomes. Cyber criminals revealed new levels of ambition in 2016 .
Read MoreAnnual Threat Report from Symantec details how simple tactics led to unprecedented outcomes. Cyber criminals revealed new levels of ambition in 2016 .
Read MoreBy D’Arcy Gue – It’s worth remembering that 2016 was dubbed the “year of data security” after 90 percent of healthcare providers suffered data breaches in the previous two years. In particular, the Anthem breach of late 2014/early 2015 got everyone’s attention for the sheer magnitude (around 80 million records) of the hack.
SecurityScorecard released its 2016 Healthcare Industry Cybersecurity Report – a comprehensive analysis exposing alarming cybersecurity vulnerabilities across 700 healthcare organizations.
By Susan Biddle – The havoc that Ransomware creates is real, its immediate impact and implications clear: workstations are disabled, files are encrypted and systems are shut down.
By Bob Grant – HHS Office for Civil Rights has released new guidance about how HIPAA-beholden entities can better equip themselves to deal with ransomware attacks. Ransomware is a targeted kind of malware attack that takes data ‘hostage.’ The attackers responsible then give the organization a countdown to a time at which they expect to receive a ‘ransom’ in exchange for restored access to the withheld data.
By Matt Fisher – After promising to provide guidance and insight for a breaking issue, the OCR came out with ransomware guidance under HIPAA. One major issue for debate was whether a ransomware attack constitutes a HIPAA breach. The guidance provides insight into where OCR is coming from and what it expects the industry to do in response to a ransomware attack.
Since January 2016, hospitals in three states and the District of Columbia have been maliciously attacked and patient health data has been put at risk. These cyberattacks are a result of “Ransomware”, a malware system designed to “kidnap” data, prevent victims from accessing their information, and extort them for the decryption key.
The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST), the leading organization supporting the healthcare industry in advancing the state of information protection, has released findings from an industry pilot to evaluate methods to improve the collection and sharing of cyber threat Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) and enable their effective consumption by a broad range of organizations.
By Bob Grant – In the past 90 days, there have been five separate instances of hospitals in the US and Canada being hit by ransomware attacks. The most recent of these instances affected MedStar Health, which is the largest health care provider throughout the Maryland and Washington, D.C. area.