An U.S. hospital has become a victim of ransomware attacks. Last week, a ransom attack managed to infect the Hancock Regional Hospital System in Indiana, requiring hospitals to pay an indeterminate amount of bitcoin to provide unlocking keys. The attack took place on January 11, affecting medical centers’ e-mails, EHRs, and other internal operating systems.
The hospital stressed that no patient records were removed from the network and patient care was not significantly affected. The agency closed some systems to prevent further infections and contacted the FBI and the National Information Technology Security Company. As of Saturday morning, these systems have not returned to normal, and hospital staff continues to use pen and paper to update the patient’s medical data.
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Some ransomware was previously entered into the hospital system through a malicious e-mail or website link from employees, but Steve Long, chief executive of Hancock Health Hospital, said that is not the case in this context. The hospital spokesman said we, like other hospitals, have been conducting disaster drills so it’s all about the exercises we’ve been doing over the years, how to continue delivering world-class medical care in case of system failure or system violation And nursing is something we have been preparing for years.
Last year, Kansas Heart Hospital and the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center were also affected by cyber attacks.
Reference: cbsnews
