Tag Archive for: Cyberattack

What We Know About San Diego Scripps Health Cyberattack – NBC 7 San Diego

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What to Know

  • The California Department of Public health calls the cyberattack “ransomware attacks”
  • Scripps did not provide any information on how the cyberattack occurred but later determined that the outage was due to a security incident involving malware on its computer networks
  • The cyberattack caused rescheduled appointments, affected Scripps email servers, and suspended access to patient portals and other tech applications

One of San Diego’s main health care systems, Scripps Health, had its technology servers hacked on May 1 in what has been deemed a ransomware attack by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).

And, although the incident has disrupted access to patient information, affected the ability of health care workers to do their jobs and led to a lack of communication with patients, Scripps Health has provided little details about the cyberattack.


NBC 7

Patients who have appointments scheduled in the coming days can call 1-800-SCRIPPS for more information about their appointment status.

The local health-care provider, operates five hospitals in San Diego, along with a series of clinics.

Here’s what happened in the last week, what we know and what we don’t know:

May 2, 2021

Scripps Health first confirmed on Sunday that their technology servers were hacked overnight forcing the health care system to switch to offline chart systems and causing a disruption to their patient portals.

Scripps did not provide any information on how the cyberattack occurred or state exactly what systems were affected by the breach.

The health care system said they suspended access to their patient portals and other “technology applications related to our operations at our health care facilities,” but stressed that patient care continues using “established back-up processes, including offline documentation methods.”

The San Diego County Office of Emergency Services (OES) said ambulances were being diverted from Scripps’ facilities to other hospitals in the area but that it was a precautionary measure.

As of May 5, the county had stopped adjusting its routing of…

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Cyber-attack hackers threaten to share US police informant data – BBC News

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Cyber-attack hackers threaten to share US police informant data  BBC News

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A ‘Worst Nightmare’ Cyberattack: The Untold Story Of The SolarWinds Hack

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“This release includes bug fixes, increased stability and performance improvements.”

The routine software update may be one of the most familiar and least understood parts of our digital lives. A pop-up window announces its arrival and all that is required of us is to plug everything in before bed. The next morning, rather like the shoemaker and the elves, our software is magically transformed.

Last spring, a Texas-based company called SolarWinds made one such software update available to its customers. It was supposed to provide the regular fare — bug fixes, performance enhancements — to the company’s popular network management system, a software program called Orion that keeps a watchful eye on all the various components in a company’s network. Customers simply had to log into the company’s software development website, type a password and then wait for the update to land seamlessly onto their servers.

The routine update, it turns out, is no longer so routine.

Hackers believed to be directed by the Russian intelligence service, the SVR, used that routine software update to slip malicious code into Orion’s software and then used it as a vehicle for a massive cyberattack against America.

“Eighteen thousand [customers] was our best estimate of who may have downloaded the code between March and June of 2020,” Sudhakar Ramakrishna, SolarWinds president and CEO, told NPR. “If you then take 18,000 and start sifting through it, the actual number of impacted customers is far less. We don’t know the exact numbers. We are still conducting the investigation.”

On Thursday, the Biden administration announced a roster of tough sanctions against Russia as part of what it characterized as the “seen and unseen” response to the SolarWinds breach.

NPR’s months-long examination of that landmark attack — based on interviews with dozens of players from company officials to victims to cyber forensics experts who investigated, and intelligence officials who are in the process of calibrating the Biden administration’s response — reveals a hack unlike any other, launched by a sophisticated adversary who took aim at a soft underbelly of digital life: the routine software update.

By design,…

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Britain must boost cyber-attack capacity, PM Boris Johnson says, Telecom News, ET Telecom

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Britain needs to boost its capacity to conduct cyber attacks on foreign enemies, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said before the publication of a national security review next week.

“Cyber power is revolutionising the way we live our lives and fight our wars, just as air power did 100 years ago,” Johnson said in a statement released by his office on Saturday.

Johnson is due to present a long-term review of national security strategy to parliament on Tuesday which media reports suggest could lead to a reduction in armed forces personnel.

“The review will set out the importance of cyber technology to our way of life – whether it’s defeating our enemies on the battlefield, making the internet a safer place or developing cutting-edge tech to improve people’s lives,” Johnson’s office said.

In 2019, Britain spent $59 billion, or 2.1% of national income, on defence, more than any other large European country but far below the 3.5% of income spent by the United States.

Britain has invested heavily in costly aircraft carriers in recent years and maintains nuclear weapons, but its ground forces have shrunk since the Cold War ended.

Some British media have reported that the review will call for the number of army personnel to be reduced by a further 12,500 to around 70,000.

The defence ministry said on Saturday that talk of cuts “at this stage is speculation”.

Johnson said the National Cyber Force – including spies, defence officials and scientists – would have a permanent base in northern England as the government tries to boost regional development outside London.

The NCF targets threats including foreign air defence systems and the mobile phones of people the government views as serious criminals or terrorists.

It was created last year alongside a dedicated army regiment focused on cyber warfare. In 2016 a National Cyber Security Centre was set up to advise the government and public on how to reduce the risk of cyber-attacks.

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