Hackers Continue to Stack up the Attacks

Hackers using ransomware gets paid to turn the system back

Mount Pleasant Texas facility Titus Regional Medical Center and Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center are just two recent examples of hackers accessing systems of major medical providers. In these two cases, hackers demanded ransom in order to turn the systems back over to the owners. While the final outcome of the Texas hack is unknown, Hollywood Presbyterian ended up paying roughly $17,000 to get back access to their systems and data.

Dave Kennedy, CEO of the information security firm TrustedSec stated, “If they decided to pay the ransom, it probably means that they didn’t have very good backups, they weren’t able to recover the data, and that the data would have been lost if they didn’t pay the ransom.” This is often the sad case for so many different companies. Security and backups are not thought about until after the fact.

Many hospital and doctor offices still do not have adequate protection of their EHRs. Audits and investigations assessing HIPAA compliance have found that some basic safeguards are often ignored. Microwize Technology offers Managed IT Services including firewall software, antivirus software, on-site and online backups – all should be part of your office’s security plan. Call 800-955-0321 and learn more about the security services that Microwize provides.