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NY lawmakers vow to tackle cyber hack attacks against hospitals, schools

January 15, 2023/in Computer Security

New York state lawmakers have promised to make helping local governments, schools and hospitals protect against cyber ransomware attacks a top priority during the 2023 legislative session.

It comes after a wave of such attacks hit institutions across the Empire State, with the computer systems of a major Brooklyn hospital network and those of the Suffolk County government disabled by hackers last year.

“This is a top item on my agenda for 2023,” said Steven Otis, chairman of the Assembly Science and Technology Committee.

“I am especially sensitive to local government and school districts being targets of ransomware attacks,” said Otis. “We have to get into prevent mode.”

A study just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the number of ransomware attacks against hospitals and other medical institutions more than doubled from 2016 to 2021 — from 43 to 91 nationally, and that figure is likely under-reported.

Hospitals are among the top targets of hackers because of all the personal information they have stored about patients.

The computer database systems for Brooklyn One Health System containing private patient information and medical records were disabled by hackers last November. The hospital network — which includes Brookdale, Interfaith and Kingsbrook Jewish hospitals — was forced to go back to a manual system of pen and paper.

The hacking forced Interfaith Medical Center and other hospitals in the system to have to use a manual system for records.

Hackers also breached a Suffolk County web server in a cyberattack on Sept. 8, 2022, demanding a $2.5 million ransom. An investigation found that the hackers had initially breached Suffolk’s database in December 2021, exploiting a flaw in the software and remaining there for nine months before posting a ransomware note demanding $2.5 million.

Even the Metropolitan Opera’s Box Office was hacked last month.

“Ransomware attacks and cyber hackers are the existential threat of our times,” said former state Sen. Diane Savino, who chaired the committee on Internet and technology and is now a senior adviser to New York…

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The Hacking Of Hospitals Highlights Ransomware

September 21, 2022/in Computer Security

The Hacking Of Hospitals Highlights Ransomware

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The number of ransomware attacks on healthcare organisations is increasing significantly and more needs to be done to up-date and continually improve their cyber security.

Ransomware hacks, in which attackers encrypt computer networks and demand payment to make them functional again, have been a growing concern for both the private and public sector since the 90s. But they can be particularly devastating in the healthcare industry, where even minutes of down time can have deadly consequences and have become ominously frequent.

The number of ransomware attacks on healthcare organisations increased 94% from 2021 to 2022, according to a report from the cyber security firm Sophos and two-thirds (66%) of healthcare organisations were hit by ransomware attacks last year, up from 34% in 2020.

More than two-thirds of healthcare organisations in the US said they had experienced a ransomware attack in 2021, the study said, up from 34% in 2020.

Ransomware attacks on healthcare are particularly common in the US, with 41% of such attacks globally having been carried out against US-based firms in 2021.The new industrial age of the Internet came way back in the 2000’s and has only strengthened its presence in the age of man since then. The COVID-19 pandemic proved a great benefactor to online activity as people began spending more and more time on the internet, on social media and other websites and those new to the connected online world had to embrace it on some level.

Now that a large number of people across the world have access to the Internet and go online frequently, be it on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, the menace of cyber-bullying or online bullying is something we all should know and be vigilant about, irrespective of whether we have experienced it or not. Just as bullying in real world requires someone trying to hector a seemingly calm and timid person face-to-face in places like schools and colleges, cyber-bullying takes place in the online world…

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High-Tech Drug Infusion Pumps in Hospitals Vulnerable to Damage, Hackers – Consumer Health News

March 21, 2022/in Computer Security

MONDAY, March 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) — You’ve probably seen an infusion pump, even though the name might make it sound like a mysterious piece of medical technology.

These devices govern the flow of IV medications and fluids into patients. They help deliver extra fluids to people in the emergency room, administer monoclonal antibodies to folks with COVID-19, and pump chemotherapy drugs to cancer patients.

“If you’re watching a television drama, they are the boxes next to the bedside. Tubing goes from a medication bag through the pump to the patient,” said Erin Sparnon, senior engineering manager for device evaluation at the non-profit health care quality and safety group ECRI.

But the widespread usefulness of these ever-present devices has also made them a top technology hazard for U.S. hospitals, experts say.

Damaged infusion pumps can cause a patient to receive too much or too little medicine, potentially placing the lives of critically ill patients at risk. Plastic can crack, hinges can pinch, electronics can fail, batteries can die — and a patient can be placed in peril.

“There are over a million infusions running in the U.S. every day. The good news about that is the vast majority of them are just fine. The bad news is that a one in a million problem can happen every day,” Sparnon said.

“That’s why infusion pumps get a lot of attention, because they’re ubiquitous. They’re everywhere and they’re used on critical patients for critical medications,” Sparnon said. “We regularly get reports from health care settings where patients have been harmed due to pump damage.”

Damaged infusion pumps placed number three on ECRI’s list of top 10 technology hazards for 2022, mainly due to the potential for something to go mechanically wrong with them, Sparnon said.

But others have raised concerns that “smart” wi-fi-connected infusion pumps could be hacked and manipulated to harm patients.

Still, Sparnon said an infusion pump that’s been manhandled or damaged in some way poses a much greater and more concrete safety risk than the possibility of a hacked pump.

“I know it sounds really cool, but there are no reports of patient harm due to a hack,” Sparnon said. “I would put a lot more emphasis on…

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Hospitals working to stop ransomware attacks | Davidson County

October 14, 2021/in Internet Security

NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) – Many hospitals are still overrun with COVID patients and as they work to keep up, they face another threat – ransomware attacks.

Cyber security experts said the volume is increasing and so is the ransom cost.

Over the summer The Wall Street Journal reported an attack at an Oregon hospital shut down patient monitors tracking vital signs and a few months ago in Alabama a hospital’s computers were disabled for eight days and medical staff was cut off from monitors for fetal heartbeats in 12 delivery rooms.

Cybersecurity experts said these attackers aren’t just going after the hospital’s information, but the patients whose information they’re stealing.

Year-over-year there’s been about a 100% increase in volume of ransomware attacks.

Cybersecurity experts said you should get identity theft protection to help protect yourself.

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