Tag Archive for: shutdown

Scripps ransomware shutdown hits the two-week mark

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As Scripps Health reaches the two-week mark in its ongoing ransomware outage, the “will be back soon” message posted on its website is beginning to look more than a little optimistic.

Though a company spokesman said the health system had nothing new to report on the situation Friday, employees who said they wished to remain anonymous to avoid losing their jobs, confirmed that critical electronic medical records systems remained offline, continuing to force paper documentation and slowing down the pace of care, especially in emergency departments.

Two independent individuals privy to the current situation inside Scripps said that a decision was made Friday to once again divert stroke, trauma and heart attack cases from Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla due to concerns over a recent influx of emergency patients at the facility, one of the largest in San Diego.

“I cannot stress this enough, every minute we are there we feel like we are playing with our license,” one nurse said, adding that many have been advising their own family members to stay away. “We are all buying malpractice insurance at this time.”

Regulators, so far, have not expressed similar concerns. In an email sent Friday afternoon, the California Department of Public Health said it “continues to monitor” Scripps facilities, adding that they “are operational and caring for patients using appropriate contingency protocols.”

Patients continue to give mixed reviews of how their care is being influenced by such a long-running cyber attack.

Steve Bernitz of Encinitas said he has been a Scripps spine surgery patient for six years and currently has two ruptured discs in his back that will likely require surgery.

Simply getting Scripps to acknowledge that he was its patient, despite the fact that he has been in “great pain” for the past 10 days, he said, has been nearly impossible.

“They won’t take appointments, they won’t answer any questions about what is happening or when they might re-open, aren’t referring people to outside doctors, and will not even allow their doctors to speak with their patients via telephone as they say they cannot do that without a functioning medical records system,”…

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Myanmar’s Internet Shutdown Is an Act of ‘Vast Self-Harm’

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From June 2019 until this February, 1.4 million people in Myanmar’s Rakhine state dealt with the longest government-mandated internet shutdown in history, targeted at the Rohingya ethnic minority that makes up most of Rakhine’s population. The connectivity blackout finally ended at the beginning of February, days after Myanmar’s military deposed democratically elected officials and seized control of the country. But the reprieve was short-lived. 

Over the past two months the military junta has continued to use the mechanisms for digital control put in place by Myanmar’s previous regimes, escalating platform-blocking and digital censorship across Myanmar and initiating different combinations of mobile data and wireless broadband outages, including various overnight connectivity blackouts for 46 consecutive days. On the 47th night, this Friday at 1 am local time, the government mandated that all telecoms cut wireless and mobile internet access across the entire country. More than 24 hours later, it has not returned.

“What authorities are doing in the online environment is a reflection of their crackdown in the offline environment,” says Oliver Spencer, adviser to Free Expression Myanmar, a domestic human rights group. “They’re destroying businesses, conducting raids, arbitrarily rounding people up, and shooting people. Their objective is to spread so much fear that the unrest, the opposition, just dies, because people’s fear overtakes their anger. Shutting down the internet is meant to be just one demonstration of their absolute power. But it’s a vast self-harm.”

Authorities have left hardwired internet access available so banks, large corporations, and the junta’s own operations can retain some connectivity. But the overwhelming majority of Myanmar’s 54 million citizens, as well as its small and medium-sized businesses and gig economy, rely on mobile data and wireless broadband access for their internet. Physical phone, coaxial cable, or fiber optic hookups are rare in the country. 

In addition to stifling speech, communication, and digital rights, the indiscriminate internet blackouts are destroying Myanmar’s economy, halting pandemic-related remote schooling, and disrupting…

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Indian Government Sets New Record For ‘Internet Shutdown By A Democracy’

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India’s internet blockade targeting the Kashmir state has set a dubious record that really shouldn’t be held by a government that considers itself a democracy.

It is now 134 days since the seven million residents of Kashmir had regular access to the internet beyond a handful of government controlled outlets, the longest denial of access by a democratic state.

This brings India close to its nearest competitors in shutdown longevity, China and Myanmar — neither of which consider themselves responsive to public concerns or demands. Ever since the Kashmir region lost its autonomy earlier this year, the Indian government has been in crackdown mode. The easiest way to control a population you feel needs more controlling is to remove their communication options.

When the region was still independent, it engaged in its own internet blackouts. But those were nothing compared to the Indian government’s efforts, which began with the selective censorship of certain content and expanded to eliminate access to almost everything internet-related.

The excuse for the blackout is national security. The Indian government claims it’s necessary to prevent Pakistani-led terror groups from organizing. Whether or not that’s been effective, the elimination of internet connectivity has done severe damage to the region’s population. People with no connection to terror groups and otherwise uninterested in shrugging off the Indian government’s shackles are being hurt.

Asmita Bakshi’s article for LiveMint covers the human cost of the internet shutdown. Killing off the internet has disabled support systems for women targeted by violent acts and made people — like Uber driver Dipesh Sharma — pretty much unemployed.

His earnings are crucial for his family—his wife and daughter, parents and younger siblings, all of whom he supports financially. He also pays ₹4,000 as rent for his two-room accommodation and ₹11,000 as monthly instalment for his vehicle.

The weekend without mobile internet, therefore, was particularly hard on him. “Saturday-Sunday aap samajh lo main berozgaar tha (On Saturday-Sunday, it was like I was jobless),” he says.

One doesn’t typically view India as an authoritarian regime, but Baskhi’s report points out India’s 134 internet shutdowns in 2018 outpaced a number of countries with worse international reputations, including a handful of nations on the UN’s human rights blacklist. Its 2018 total was more than Russia, Congo, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, and the Philippines combined.

The long-term shutdown is also causing other collateral damage. The region’s service providers are losing money every day no one’s paying for internet access they don’t actually have. Since they’re at the mercy of the government, they’re being forced to bleed cash until the Indian government feels it’s “safe” enough to lift the blockade.

On top of that, there’s further annoyance ahead for residents if the Indian government ever decides to give them back their internet connections. As James Vincent reports for The Verge, those affected by the blockade will likely have to rebuild their personal social networks from scratch.

On Wednesday, reports on social media appeared of Kashmiri WhatsApp users leaving group chats in droves. This was a surprise to friends and relatives outside the region given that India has shut down Kashmir’s internet for over four months as part of a dispute over the area’s autonomy.

Some thought the activity might be sign of a further crackdown, but, as first reported by BuzzFeed News, the accounts are being automatically removed in line with Facebook’s inactivity policy. If users don’t log into their account for 120 days (four months), they’re deactivated, meaning individuals will have to sign up to the service again.

It’s not an insignificant loss for WhatsApp, which has almost five times as many users in India than it does in the United States. It’s definitely a significant loss for Indian users, whose government has managed to terminate their accounts through an extremely disruptive action followed by more than three months of inaction.

The Indian government may be claiming this is a national security necessity, but the reality is it’s insulating itself from criticism and preventing unhappy Kashmir residents from organizing or protesting the absorption of the previously-independent region. Any collateral damage here is acceptable because it helps the Indian government achieve its goal of complete control.

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With cybersecurity threats looming, the government shutdown is putting America at risk – TechCrunch

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With cybersecurity threats looming, the government shutdown is putting America at risk  TechCrunch

Putting political divisions and affiliations aside, the government partially shutting down for the third time over the last year is extremely worrisome, particularly …

“cyber warfare news” – read more