Healthcare Cybersecurity News

Illinois Gastroenterology Group just reported that unauthorized people obtained access to its computer system and possibly accessed and exfiltrated sensitive patient data. The group detected the cyberattack on October 22, 2021 due to suspicious activity seen in its computer system. Third-party cybersecurity experts were employed to inspect the attack and find out the nature and extent of the attack. On November 18, 2021, Illinois Gastroenterology found out that the segments of its network that the unauthorized people accessed comprised patient details like names, addresses, birth dates, driver’s license numbers, passport numbers, Social Security numbers, financial account details, payment card data,…

The five eyes cybersecurity agencies have just released a joint security advisory concerning the threat of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure conducted by Russian nation-state threat actors and pro-Russia cybercriminal groups. Intelligence obtained by the agencies reveals the Russian government has been trying to find potential for running cyberattacks on targets located in the West to retaliate against the sanctions made on Russia and the help being offered to Ukraine. The agencies say that Russian state-sponsored hacking groups were performing Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks in Ukraine and are recognized to have employed dangerous malware in Ukraine on government and…

New Jersey Brain and Spine (NJBS) has lately reported it suffered a cyberattack on or approximately November 16, 2021, that encrypted data files on its system. NJBS mentioned it promptly took steps to safeguard its network and involved a computer forensic company to investigate the security breach. Though no proof was uncovered that reveals there was any misuse of patient files because of the attack, the forensics agency stated the attacker could have accessed files comprising patient records. A third party vendor performed an assessment of all files on its system that was likely accessed, and though the data mining…

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) has published an alert to the U.S. health industry concerning possible cyber threats that can spillover from the conflict and impact U.S. healthcare providers. HC3 stated the HHS is uninformed of any specified threats to the Health and Public Health (HPH) Segment; nevertheless, it is apparent that allies on the two sides of the clash have cyber capabilities and there are worries that there can be cyberattacks on the HPH industry as a result of the conflict. HC3 has cautioned that threats might be from three places:…

Enlarging security features can be done with a small budget by utilizing free cybersecurity solutions and services. A lot of tools and services were created by government organizations, the cybersecurity group, and the public and private segment that may be employed to strengthen defenses versus damaging cyberattacks, recognize probable attacks fast, and help companies respond to and control security breaches. Obtaining appropriate free cybersecurity tools and services may be a time-consuming task. To support critical infrastructure firms minimize cybersecurity threats, the DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has gathered a collection of services made available by CISA and other…

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has provided indicators of compromise (IoCs) as well as facts of the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) connected with Lockbit 2.0 ransomware. The Lockbit ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation has been around since September 2019. In summer 2021, there’s a new ransomware version launched, Lockbit 2.0. It possessed more superior functions, such as the capacity to automatically encrypt data across Windows domains by means of Active Directory group policies, and a Linux-based malware was likewise created that can take advantage of vulnerabilities present in VMware ESXi virtual machines. The affiliates employed by the ransomware operation utilize…

The healthcare industry will still have a sizeable assortment of threats. Ransomware attacks and data breaches continue to be remarkably commonplace. All through 2021, healthcare data breach reporting registered a rate of about 2 daily, and though there was a decrease in the number of ransomware attacks in contrast to 2020, ransomware is still a serious threat with a number of ransomware gangs actively targeting the healthcare community. In Quarter 4, the 2021 Healthcare Cybersecurity Bulletin, issued on January 21, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) cautioned of certain persistent cyberattack trends that…

The original vulnerability determined in Log4j (CVE-2021-44228) that stunned the world thanks to its seriousness, ease of exploitation, and the magnitude of its effect on the software programs and cloud solutions, is not the only vulnerability present in the Java-based logging utility. Right after the launch of version 2.15.0 to fix the vulnerability, version 2.15.0 stayed vulnerable particularly to non-default configurations due to an incomplete patch. The most recent vulnerability CVE-2021-45046 was fixed in version 2.16.0 of Log4j. In the beginning, the low severity vulnerability had a CVSS rating of 3.7; however, the severity score turned to critical (CVSS 9.0)….

The Medical Review Institute of America (MRoiA) encountered a supposed ransomware attack last November 2021 that led to the stealing of sensitive patient information. MRoiA is granted access to patient data by HIPAA-covered entities because of the clinical peer evaluation process of healthcare providers. Based on a data breach notice furnished to the Vermont attorney general, MRoiA stated it experienced a sophisticated cyberattack that was discovered on November 9, 2021. Third-party cybersecurity specialists were quickly involved to do a forensic investigation to find out the nature and extent of the attack and to help with its remediation initiatives, which include…

TriValley Primary Care based in Perkasie, PA has started sending notifications to 57,596 patients regarding the potential compromise of some of their personal data and protected health information (PHI). Suspicious activity was noticed in its IT system on October 11, 2021. The healthcare provider took steps promptly to secure its systems and stop further unauthorized access. Third-party forensic specialists helped in investigating the incident to ascertain the nature and impact of the cyberattack. The investigation into the breach ended on November 4 and although no evidence of actual or attempted patient data misuse, unauthorized access and potential theft of PHI…

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) have issued a joint cybersecurity alert to warn about the continuing attacks on critical infrastructure industries such as the medical care and public health industry by an Iranian Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor. Cyber actors well-known for being connected with the Iranian government are taking advantage of vulnerabilities identified in the Fortinet FortiOS operating system beginning March 2021, and are using a Microsoft Exchange ProxyShell vulnerability to obtain access to targets’ systems beginning October…

Ransomware groups frequently utilize double extortion techniques to compel victims to give ransom payments. Besides file encryption, they steal sensitive information and issue a threat to sell or post the stolen information when no ransom is paid. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has recently released a private industry advisory regarding a new extortion strategy, where ransomware groups attack businesses and organizations that are engaged in important time-sensitive financial activities, steal sensitive financial information, then threaten to expose that data when payment isn’t made. Ransomware groups perform substantial research on their victims prior to starting an attack, including collecting publicly…

Tech Etch based in Plymouth, MA manufactures adaptable printed circuits, precision-engineered thin metal parts, and EMI/RFI shielding. It has reported a ransomware attack that resulted in the potential compromise of the personal data and protected health information (PHI) of current and former employees. Organizations such as Tech Etch would not typically be expected to adhere to HIPAA; nonetheless, the firm provides a health plan for its workers and, therefore, is categorized as a HIPAA-covered entity. Tech Etch identified the ransomware attack on August 25, 2021. The investigators determined that the attackers acquired access to its network last August 20. Tech…

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given a notification to end-users of Medtronic wireless insulin pumps concerning a critical security vulnerability impacting a number of remote controllers. MiniMed insulin pumps are employed to deliver insulin to help control diabetes. The pumps come with an optional remote controller device for connecting wirelessly with the insulin pump. A security analyst found a cybersecurity issue in older versions of remote controllers that employ previous-generation technology that can likely be used to cause harm to consumers of the pumps. An unauthorized individual could use the cybersecurity vulnerability to report and playback the wireless…

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has modified its checklist of cybersecurity bad practices that need to be eliminated. Cyber threat actors usually perform highly sophisticated attacks to obtain access to internal sites and sensitive records, yet in many cases, sophisticated strategies, techniques, and procedures aren’t necessary. The Bad Practices Catalog was made in July 2021 to improve knowledge of a number of the most egregious problems in cybersecurity that allow attackers to do the job. There have been numerous listings posted on cybersecurity best practices to adhere to, and although it is important that those practices are put…

Memorial Health System located in Marietta, OH was pressured to redirect emergency care because of an alleged ransomware attack. When the cyberattack happened, the health network was compelled to de-activate IT systems to restrict the attack. Emergency practices were executed as a result of the insufficiency of access to critical IT systems, and the staff members are utilizing paper records. Memorial Health System manages three hospitals in West Virginia And Ohio, all of them were impacted by the cyberattack. Considering that electronic health records cannot be accessed, patient safety was likely put at stake, and so the option was taken…

Several vulnerabilities were found in Philips Vue PACS items, 5 were critical vulnerabilities having a 9.8 severity score and 4 were high severity vulnerabilities. Attackers can exploit a few of the vulnerabilities remotely with a low attack complexity. An attacker that successfully exploits the vulnerability would be able to acquire system access, snoop, view and change information, execute arbitrary code, set up unauthorized software programs, or compromise system integrity and acquire access to sensitive information, or adversely impact the availability of the system. Philips reported the vulnerabilities lately to CISA as well as the impacted list of Philips Vue PACS…

President Biden’s Cybersecurity Executive Order demands all federal bureaus to re-examine their strategy to cybersecurity, create new options of assessing software, and carry out modern security methods to minimize risk, for example, multi-factor authentication, encryption for data at rest and in transit, and using a zero-trust approach to security. One of the very first specifications of the Executive Order was for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to issue a definition of critical software, which the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) will utilize to produce a listing of all software covered by the Executive Order and for…

On June 11, the Avaddon ransomware-as-a-service operation was deactivated and the threat group gave the decryption keys for all its victims. Bleeping Computer received a message with a security password and a URL to a password secured ZIP file that included the individual keys for 2,934 Avaddon ransomware attack victims. The keys were affirmed as legit by Emsisoft and Coveware, with the former right now having revealed a free decryptor that could be employed by all Avaddon ransomware victims to decrypt their data files. Avaddon is a rather new ransomware-as-a-service operation that initiated in March 2020. The threat group responsible…

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released a Flash Advisory cautioning Fortinet Fortigate appliances users that Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups are going to exploit devices that lack patching for three CVEs: CVE-2020-12812, CVE-2019-5591, and CVE-2018-13379. These aren’t zero-day vulnerabilities, because patches are already accessible for a time. Numerous businesses are actually slow to employ the patches and are right now being targeted. In early April, the FBI, together with the DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) published a Joint Cybersecurity Advisory telling that threat actors can exploit the vulnerabilities to execute data exfiltration, data encryption, and to…

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued guidance on ousting threat actors from systems breached in the SolarWinds Orion supply chain attacks and, even succeeding breaches of Active Directory and M365 environments. The attacks were credited to threat actors linked with the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). After acquiring network access by means of the update system of SolarWinds Orion, the threat actor picked its targets of interest for additional exposure and ignored multi-factor authentication strategies and moved laterally into Microsoft 365 environments by compromising federated identity solutions. The majority of the targets chosen for more compromise include…

The latest advisory from the DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) reported that one or more threat group is exploiting vulnerabilities identified in Ivanti’s Pulse Connect Secure devices. Though there is no formal attribution, certain security researchers had associated the threat actor with China. Targets of attacks are government, security, finance, and critical infrastructure institutions. FireEye has been keeping track of the malicious activity and claims that no less than 12 malware families were used in cyberattacks taking advantage of the vulnerabilities starting August 2020. These attacks included the collection of credentials to permit lateral movement in victim systems…

Forescout and JSOF researchers have found 9 vulnerabilities in internet-linked devices which can be taken advantage of in remote code execution and denial-of-service attacks. The vulnerabilities were seen in specific usage of the Domain Name System (DNS) protocol in TCP/IP network communication stacks. The vulnerabilities are typically a result of how parsing of domain names happens, which could go against DNS implementations, and issues with DNS compression, that devices employ to compress information to converse online utilizing TCP/IP. This type of vulnerabilities was given the name NAME:WRECK. They impact common IoT and operational technology systems, such as IPnet, FreeBSD, NetX…

At the start of 2020, phishers began exploiting the pandemic and deviated from their normal lures to an array of pandemic-correlated themes for their phishing activities. One year after the pandemic began, the Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 Team researchers reviewed the phishing trends over the past year to see the variations in the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of phishers and the level to which COVID-19 was utilized in their phishing activities. The researchers reviewed all phishing links discovered from January 2020 and February 2021 to find out the number that had a COVID-19 motif, utilizing certain keywords and…

Because of a phishing attack suffered by Saint Alphonsus Health System based in Boise, ID, the data of its patients were likely exposed, as well as the information of patients of Saint Agnes Medical Center located in Fresno, CA. Saint Alphonsus discovered abnormal activity in the email account of a worker on January 6, 2021. The provider quickly protected the email account and looked into the breach to find out the origin and character of the incident. Saint Alphonsus confirmed that an unauthorized person viewed the account on January 4, 2021, allowing the individual to access the account and the…

During the pandemic, cybercriminals exploited new opportunities and have been launching attacks on hospitals, physician clinics and other firms and institutions on the front line in the struggle against COVID-19. Cyber attacks on the healthcare field increased in 2020, specifically in the fall because a synchronized campaign had numerous healthcare victims. Ransomware continues to be a serious threat to the healthcare segment and more attacks have persisted into 2021. A current CTIL League report presents more data on these attacks and a number of the strategies employed to target the healthcare industry in 2020. The report shows the work carried…

Tenable publicized a new report which showed that nearly half of all healthcare data breaches are due to ransomware attacks, and in many of the cases the attacks could have been prevented. Based on the Tenable Research 2020 Threat Landscape Retrospective Report, there were 730 data breaches reported from all industry categories in 2020’s first 10 months and more than 22 billion records had been exposed. The exposed healthcare data records were 8 million. Healthcare listed the largest number of data breaches of any industry segment from January to October 2020, accounting for nearly 1/4 of all documented data breaches….

Ransomware attacks have had an enormous effect on enterprises and institutions in America, and 2020 was notably a bad year. Ransomware gangs targeted the healthcare field, education segment, and federal, state, and municipal government authorities and agencies. There were about 2,354 attacks on these industries in 2020, as per the newest State of Ransomware report by Emisoft, a cybersecurity company based in New Zealand. The number of ransomware attacks went up dramatically in late 2019, and though the attacks slowed down in the first 6 months of 2020, a serious coordinated campaign started in September when attacks considerably increased and…

On January 5, 2020, President Trump approved a bill (HR 7898) that improves the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) and gives a safe harbor for firms that have carried out accepted security best practices before suffering from a data breach. Though the bill won’t go so far as stopping the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights from issuing financial penalties for HIPAA compliance problems that triggered a data breach, the amendment necessitates OCR to consider the security steps put in place to lessen cybersecurity risk during the one year before…

In the fall of 2020, CISA, FBI, and HHS cybersecurity issued a joint alert to the healthcare and public health field subsequent to an increase in ransomware activity. The joint notice discussed that threat actors are actively targeting the healthcare sector to infect systems with ransomware. Many ransomware gangs had heightened attacks on the medical and public health segment. The Ryuk and Conti gangs are the most dynamic. Check Point’s new report reveals that attacks kept on increasing in November and December 2020. Cyber-attacks on healthcare companies increased by 45% worldwide. The increase was greater than twice the percentage increase…

Last October 2020, the NetWalker ransomware gang launched an attack on the Wilmington Surgical Associates surgical center located in North Carolina. Prior to deploying the Netwalker ransomware to do file encryption, the gang stole 13GB of records with sensitive data. The HHS’ Office for Civil Rights breach portal already posted about the ransomware attack indicating that it has compromised 114,834 patients’ protected health information (PHI). The NetWalker ransomware gang has conducted more attacks on its healthcare company targets this 2020. It attacked the University of California San Francisco and stole sensitive and valuable research data. The University paid $1.14 million…

The HHS’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) has given an update on ransomware activity aimed at the healthcare and public health sectors. In late October, the HHS, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) gave a joint alert concerning an impending rise in ransomware activity aimed towards the healthcare sector. In just one week after giving the warning, six healthcare organizations reported ransomware attacks in one day. Over a dozen healthcare providers have submitted cyberattack reports in the last two months. Healthcare companies reported more than 62 attacks…

Magnolia Pediatrics located in Prairieville, LA is informing 12,861 patients regarding the likely exposure of some of their protected health information (PHI) due to a ransomware attack that transpired on or around March 26, 2020. IT vendor, LaCompuTech looked into the ransomware attack and confirmed that only its master boot record was impacted and the hackers did not access, encrypt or export any patient data. The IT vendor reported that there was no HIPAA breach, thus it is not required to report the incident to the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights. It is likewise not required to issue breach notification…

MU Health Care based in Missouri has suffered a phishing attack that caused the compromise of a few employee email accounts between May 4 and May 6, 2020. An investigation of the incident unveiled the compromised email accounts included patient data like names, birth dates, account numbers, health insurance information, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license numbers. MU Health Care has advised all impacted patients and has given them free of charge credit monitoring services. To date, there are no reports received that indicate the misuse of any patient information. The affected email accounts comprised the protected health information (PHI)…

The Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has given a security alert that hackers connected with China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) are carrying out targeted cyberattacks on U.S. government bureaus and private sector firms. The attacks are continuing for more than a year and generally target vulnerabilities in common networking tools like Pulse And Citrix Secure VPN appliances, Microsoft Exchange email servers, and F5 Big-IP load balancers. The hacking groups employ publicly available data and open source exploit applications in the attacks for instance Mimikatz, Cobalt Strike, And China Chopper. The hacking groups that have…

The Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a high priority notification to warn companies of the danger of cyberattacks using the Taidoor malware, which is a remote access Trojan (RAT) that the Chinese authorities employ in cyber-surveillance strategies. Taidoor was initially discovered in 2008 and was employed in numerous attacks on companies. The advisory was given after the FBI, CISA, and the Department of Defense (DoD) discovered a new Taidoor RAT variant that is being utilized in attacks on American companies. The solid proof was discovered indicating that attackers doing work for the Chinese government…

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) gave a (TLP:WHITE) FLASH notification this week after seeing a growth in attacks that use the NetWalker ransomware. NetWalker is a somewhat new ransomware threat that was discovered in March 2020 soon after a transportation and logistics organization in Australia and the University of California in, San Francisco suffered attacks. UC San Francisco was pressured to pay out a ransom payment of approximately $1.14 million to acquire the keys to unlock encrypted data files to restore vital research files. One of the latest healthcare victims was Lorien Health Services, a nursing home operator based…

After 5 months of dormancy, the reactivated Emotet botnet is being employed to send out substantial amounts of unsolicited email messages to businesses in the U.K. and the U.S. The Emotet botnet is a system of breached computers which were downloaded with Emotet malware. Emotet malware is a data stealer and malware downloader which was employed to spread different banking Trojans, which include the TrickBot Trojan. Emotet hijacks email accounts and then utilizes them to dispatch spam email messages that contain malicious urls and file attachments, usually Word and Excel files that contain harmful macros. In the event the macros…

Microsoft has introduced a patch to resolve a 17-year old wormable remote code execution vulnerability identified in Windows DNS Server. The vulnerability can be exploited remotely, demand a low-level skill to exploit, and could permit an attacker to seize full control of the entire IT infrastructure of a company. Security researchers at Check Point discovered vulnerability CVE-2020-1350 and named it SIGRed. The vulnerability can be found on all Windows Server versions starting from 2003 until 2019 and was designated the maximum CVSS v3 score of 10 out of 10. The flaw is wormable, thus an attacker could exploit the vulnerability…

Organizations participating in the research studies of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 were warned that hackers linked with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are focusing attacks on their organizations, for that reason, they have to do something to keep their systems safe from any attack. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) together with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) of the Department of Homeland Security have issued an alert that healthcare, pharmaceutical and research organizations working on SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, COVID-19 remedies and testing procedures are the targets of hackers wanting to get research data to move ahead with PRC’s research…

The Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (H-ISAC) released a framework for CISOs to manage identity and secure their firm against identity-focused cyberattacks. This new white paper released by H-ISAC comprises the identity-focused plan to security. The former white paper details why an identity-focused solution to cybersecurity is necessary at this time, with the most recent white paper outlining how to execute that strategy. By using the framework, CISOs could handle the complete identity lifecycle of practitioners, patients, business partners, and employees in a manner that protects against identity cyberattacks, brings down risk and boosts operational efficiencies. The framework was…

Magellan Health, a Fortune 500 company, encountered a ransomware attack last April that resulted in the encryption of its files and theft of some employee information. Magellan Health noticed the attack on April 11, 2020 after files on its systems were encrypted. According to the breach investigation results, the attacker accessed its systems because an employee received a spear-phishing email on April 6 and responded to it. The attacker misled the employee by means of impersonating a Magellan Health customer. Magellan Health employed the cybersecurity firm Mandiant to investigate the breach and it confirmed that the attacker accessed a company…

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has published an advisory that cybercriminals are attempting to rob from state organizations and healthcare market consumers that are purchasing medical products and personal protective equipment (PPE). Healthcare market consumers were cautioned after having records of increasing instances of scams connected to the order of PPE and important medical equipment including ventilators, that have limited supply as a result of greater demand. The FBI has received information on many reports of advance fee frauds. Government organizations and healthcare market consumers have sent funds to vendors and brokers of PPE and medical products and learned…

Cyberattacks on healthcare organizations were reported despite the fact that these organizations are working day and night to give COVID-19 patients their needed healthcare. These attacks not only cause serious disruption, but also possibly more damage and threat to patient safety considering the COVID-19 outbreak. Plenty of phishing campaigns were found using the fear of COVID-19 as a lure to install malware. More than 2,000 coronavirus-themed domains had been registered. Most of these domain names were probably bought for executing malicious intentions. For sure the cyberattacks will not stop. However, it would appear that some threat actors have chosen not…

With attacks rising it is essential to undertake cybersecurity guidelines for keeping remote employees safe against malware and phishing attacks. Institutions should make certain to use the most recent versions of VPNs and employ patches promptly. The DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released another alert on March 13 concerning patching and upgrading VPNs for remote personnel to correct vulnerabilities. Institutions were likewise told to use multifactor authentication with all VPNs to boost security. VPNs should additionally be configured to start off automatically if devices are powered up and not just counting on personnel to manually connect. It is…

Personal Touch Home Care (PTHC), a home health company based in Lake Success, NY, began informing patients about the latest ransomware attack on Crossroads Technologies Inc., its IT vendor based in Wyomissing, PA, that potentially compromised their protected health information (PHI). On December 1, 2019, Crossroads advised PTHC that its Pennsylvania data center was attacked by ransomware. That data center hosted PTHC’s electronic medical records. Because of the ransomware attack, patient records were inaccessible for a couple of days. Although the EHR system was not accessible, PTHC employees followed emergency protocols and recorded patient data using pen and paper. The…

Enloe Medical Center in Chico, CA had a ransomware attack two weeks ago and until now the electronic medical record (EMR) system of this California healthcare provider is offline. Enloe knew about the ransomware attack on January 2, 2020, which encrypted the files of its entire network, which include the EMR system consequently the center staff are unable to access patient data. The provider promptly enforced emergency protocols to keep on delivering health care to patients and had to reschedule just a number of elective medical procedures. The telephone system became non-operational as well because of the attack, but it…

A malware attack on the Native American Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest, Inc. (NARA) in Portland, OR resulted in the potential unauthorized access of the protected health information (PHI) of native American patients who are receiving mental and physical health services, education and substance abuse treatment. NARA mentioned that the malware attack came about on November 4, 2019. Security controls failed to identify the malware at the beginning but eventually identified it in the afternoon. By November 5, the security team already had the threat under control and by November 6, it had changed all email account passwords. The attackers…

The radiology department of Roosevelt General Hospital located in Portales, New Mexico found malware in one digital imaging server, which possibly resulted in enabling the hackers to gain access to the radiological photos of approximately 500 patients. The malware installation was found on November 14, 2019 and immediate action was done to separate the server and stop even more unauthorized access and obstruct contact with the command and control server of the hackers. The IT unit was successful in taking away the malware, repairing the server and retrieving all patient information. A scan was done to search for any flaws….

Many cybercriminals still send phishing emails at random hoping to solicit some responses. However, it is more lucrative to conduct targeted attacks, which are also called spear phishing. Microsoft claims that spear phishing attacks increased twofold last year. From September 2018 to September 2019, spear phishing attacks have gone up from 0.31% to 0.62% of email volume. The number might be low, however, these spear phishing campaigns are very effective because they are laser-focused on distinct employees. Security-conscious employees find it hard to recognize emails. A lot of executives, IT and cybersecurity personnel become victims of these campaigns. The emails…

The Cancer Center of Hawaii in Oahu encountered a ransomware attack on November 5, 2019. The Cancer Center was compelled to power down its network servers because of the attack. That meant temporarily not providing radiation treatment to patients at St. Francis’ hospital in Liliha and Pali Momi Medical Center. Although patient services suffered some interruption, the center believes that the attackers did not access any patient information. The breach investigation is still in progress, but all information saved on the radiology machines were recovered. The network is likewise completely operational now. It is not known how long the network…

Ransomware continues to be one of the greatest cybersecurity threats confronted by healthcare institutions. Attacks have increased as well as ransom demands. A recent analysis by Coveware, a company providing ransomware remediation and incident response, revealed that there is a 13% increase in the average ransom payment, which stands at $41,198 in Q3 of 2019. This amount is six times the average in December 2018. A lot of companies are paying substantially more. The ransom demand of threat actors that use the Ryuk ransomware in their attacks is usually hundreds of thousands of dollars. From Q2 to Q3 of 2019,…

Cybersecurity researchers have revealed that approximately 733 million medical images stored on picture archiving and communication systems (PACs) are freely accessible on the Internet.  The investigation, a joint venture by ProPublica, German public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk, and vulnerability and analysis firm, Greenbone Networks, found images including X-rays, MRI, and CT scans stored in these PACs.  Greenbone analyzed 2,300 PACs and found that 590 were accessible from the Internet without requiring any user authentication. These 590 servers stored 24 million medical records from 52 countries.  Greenbone Networks audited the servers between July and September 2019 and set up a RadiAnt DICOM…

Microsoft has issued patches for 93 vulnerabilities across Windows, Microsoft Browsers, Microsoft Office, and Outlook this Patch Tuesday, 26 of which achieved a ‘critical’ rating. Somewhat unusually, there are no patches to address currently exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in this month’s updates; however, it is still important to apply the updates as soon as possible as it is unlikely to be long before exploits are developed for the remote code execution vulnerabilities. Four of the critical vulnerabilities corrected in this month’s round of updates are wormable flaws in Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), two of which – CVE-2019-1181 and CVE-2019-1182 – affect…

Wise Health has revealed that a phishing attack on their system has compromised the protected health information (PHI) of 36,000 patients. Wise Health System is a health care system with over 1,900 employees based in Decatur, Texas. The breach occurred on March 14, 2019, when a hacker sent phishing emails to employees of the organization. Several employees were fooled by the spoof emails and responded, allowing the hacker to harvest their login credentials. The hacker then used the credentials to log in to the Employee Kiosk and attempted to redirect over 100 payroll direct deposits. Wise Health had anti-fraud policies…

Siemens has discovered several vulnerabilities in the Scalance W1750D direct access point. Several of the vulnerabilities are of high-severity, and one is rated as ‘critical’. The vulnerabilities can be exploited remotely and hackers can exploit them with even low skill levels. A hacker could utilise the flaws to gain access to the W1750D device and execute arbitrary code within its underlying operating system. As a result, the hacker could gain access to sensitive information, perform administrative actions on the device, and expose session cookies for an administrative session. The vulnerabilities are present in all versions prior to 8.4.0.1 CVE-2018-7084 is a…

A phishing attack at a business associate of Columbus Community Hospital in Columbus, Wisconsin, has compromised the PHI of an unknown number of patients.  Columbus Community Hospital was notified of the breach on April 8, 2019, by OS, Inc., a claims management service provider and business associate (BA) to the hospital. According to the BA, the unauthorised individual gained access to the email account of one of its employees through a successful phishing attack. The hacker may have viewed patient information during the period in which they had access to the account. The information in the compromised account includes names,…

The U.S Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have issued a joint advisory warning that Lazarus APT has launched attacks using a new Trojan called HOPLIGHT. Lazarus, North Korea-backed hacking group, utilises spear phishing attacks to install malware on targets of high value. The group appears to be primarily motivated by financial gain, rather than intellectual property theft or espionage. The group is known by other aliases such as Hidden Cobra, Zinc, and Nickel Academy. Lazarus is the group that is generally considered responsible for the WannaCry attacks and several other high-profile cybersecurity incidents….

Proofpoint, a software security company, has discovered that threat actors are using legacy IMAP protocols to bypass multi-factor authentication on Office 365 and G Suite accounts. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) systems check the identity of a user before allowing them to access the account. Many experts consider them more a far more robust security measure than passwords. These identification steps may include sending an email to their account, or a text to their phone, which contains a unique code which then must be submitted online to proceed. Usually, if an attacker attempts to access an account but fail on several attempts,…

A free GandCrab ransomware decryptor has been made available on the No More Ransom depository. The decrypt works for files encrypted by versions 1, 4, early versions of 5, and versions 5.0.4 to 5.1 can now be decrypted without paying the ransom. Ransomware is malware variant which denies the user access to their device, or specific files on the device until a ransom has been paid to the scammer. Ransomware attacks are becoming increasingly common, particularly against organisations in the healthcare industry due to the high black-market of healthcare data. The malware is readily available on the dark web. If a campaign…

The Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-Cert) has issued a medical advisory about vulnerabilities found in Stryker equipment. Nine vulnerabilities were identified, affecting Secure II MedSurg Beds, S3 MedSurg Beds, and InTouch ICU Beds. The vulnerabilities could be potentially exploited to allow “data traffic manipulation, resulting in partial disclosure of encrypted communication or injection data”. The attacker need only be in radio range of the devices to perform a successful attack. The vulnerabilities are present in the four-way handshake used by WPA and WPA2 wireless security protocols which allow nonce reuse in Key Reinstallation (KRACK) attacks. Similar vulnerabilities…

Kaspersky Labs, a multinational cybersecurity and anti-virus organisation, has published its 2018 report on malware attacks detected on its network between November 2017 and October 2018. The report highlights the growing threat that malware attacks pose to data security worldwide. The report uses information obtained using data collected from Kaspersky Security Networks (KSN) users, of which there are millions worldwide. The report shows that there has been a 43% increase in ransomware detections experienced by KSN users during the period between November 2017 to October 2018 in comparison to the same period the previous year. The data also showed a…

Defiant, a security research organisation which specialises in WordPress website security, has identified a flaw in a plugin that has allowed unauthorised individuals access and alter websites.  The flaw was identified in a GDPR Compliance plugin, which was created in response to the introduction of the EU privacy laws in May 2018. The plugin allowed website owners to add a checkbox to their website for users to consent to the use of their data for specific uses, as now required by GDPR legislation. Due to the importance of GDPR, and the hefty financial penalties that organisations faced for non-compliance, it…

Blue Shield and the Blue Cross of Florida stated that personal information of a few insurance candidates has been revealed via online means. In last August, the Florida Blue was warned for the patient’s data exposure so it launched the investigation right away.  According to the investigation report of Florida Blue, the information of 475 candidates was shifted to clouds by an illegal insurance agent RTHQ (Real Time Health Quotes). The stolen data includes the files related to the agency, copies of life insurance, dental and health applications ranging 2009-2014. All those files were stored in the cloud without any…

9500 patient’s information has been exposed in a phishing attack to a Medical College of Wisconsin. The attackers got access to the email account of employees working in the college that contained PHI of patients and other sensitive information of faculty members. The type of information available was names, medical record no., DOB, details of health insurances, the names, surgical information, service date, information about treatment and medical diagnosis. A few patients also have their financial information and Social Security nos. This instance happened during a week between 21st July and 28th July when the employees of the Medical College…

The PHI of 683 patients belonging to TJ Health Columbia Clinic and TJ Samson Community Hospital in Glasgow was accessed inappropriately. This incident was highlighted by one of the autonomous care provider who worked for TJ Samson Community. This theft was checked and unrelieved in the repetitive review of PHI logs on 25th August, 2017. The continuous investigation showed that there were two people in the healthcare provider’s office who stole the PHI of patients without undergoing the policies and rules. It is a fact that autonomous health care provider have access to PHI of patient to perform daily routine…

A nearly expired laptop with very sensitive information has been missing. This laptop was belonged to the Mann-Grandstaff who worked as the VA in Spokane, WA. The laptop contained all the information about hematology tests as it was combined with the hematology analyzer. Previously the laptop was in use from April 2013 to the May 2016, but later on, when the device was not usable, it was decommissioned. A vender who supplied the device replaced the device, however the missing device was revealed by the equipment inventory. Vender of the device has no record, but the device should be returned…

The number of patients in MS center of st Louis and the MC Neurology County and town. All these patients were informed that the marketing teams of pharmaceutical companies may contact them for the research purpose. The teams may belong to the third parties. According to the authorized party, they are not permitted to contact them, but still there are some chances that the marketing teams may contact them. According to the HIPAA rules, no marketing or the research team are permitted to contact the patients for research purpose, until or unless they got permission from the authorized party. However,…

The Phishing attack has been becoming a viral issue for the healthcare companies. The latest news to HIPAA is that phishing attack has also affected the Florida Healthy Kids Corporation. On 25th July, 2017 the staff members started getting phishing emails. Some of the staff members also responded to those emails and ultimately gave access to the attacker to get the private information. When the management realized about the phishing attack, they immediately blocked the access to the email accounts. The situation was clearly handled on time. The hacker had access the accounts containing data for about 24 hours. At…

Emergence Health Network has found one of its system servers hosts been gotten to by a third gathering without approval. 11,000 patient records have possibly been jeopardized. The episode became exposed when a particular action was seen on one of the human services supplier’s servers. The movement was explored and it was resolved that profoundly touchy information may host been gotten to by the third get-together, which included patient names, addresses, dates of birth, case numbers and Social Security numbers. In the wake of procuring an outsider security master to explore the degree of the information break, it was affirmed…

Quite recently another security occurrence has been declared after the disclosure that an employee’s tablet was theft on 3July, 2015 that contained data of 1,242 patients at UCLA Clinic. Secret key ensured – Tablet but the entire information conceivably be presented to the offenders. The Clinic affirmed that no Private information was put away on the portable PC; the data hoodlums look for so as to carry monetary violations. Since the tablet was locked but locks can be split so in any case be seen and utilized by the criminals. The medicinal services supplier was told instantly after and an…

A Clinical Center has issued 68 break notice letters to patients subsequent to an archive containing information was located “in an area garage”. The notices were forwarded “out of a plenitude of alert”, albeit possibly that data could had been perused by an unapproved person. As indicated by a news outline, Channel-9 was reached through a person after his child got a rupture warning letter in the post revealing to his son that his private wellbeing data might been uncovered in a criminal occurrence, which incited correspondents to research. The owner of organization told journalists that his child received a…

Phishing effort was a reason behind a programmer accessed an e-mail account at Holy person Agnes Clinical Center. The record contained the 25,000 patient’s record of the office out of which one account of email was traded off in the assault; however that client had benefits to get to information that contained all data of patients. The uncovered records were 24,967 and just four contained Private figures however a lot of information was conceivably acquired. The occurrence was posted organization site on 27 April, 2015 and the episode was accounted on 24April, 2015 but it isn’t obvious from the letter…

The monstrous information breaks of 2 companies feature the genuine peril of HIPAA ruptures from programmers. Doctor’s facility representatives might not be in charge of the biggest breaks but staff is a major risk. Each year workers view and duplicate the information of countless patients, in the most recent occurrence a record break of 9,000 had traded off of as per a report. At Florida Hospital, 2 restorative experts working had their business contracts ended after improper approached to data. The representatives were situated in Orlando, and supposedly had and approached the patient’s records of eight hospitals, representative affirmed that…

Anthem Inc, one of the biggest health security supplier in the country, has been the victim of an exceedingly complicated cyber crime which has brought about the burglary of more than 78 million reports, making this the biggest ever information break. The assault has supposedly uncovered data including dates of birth, names, locations and Medical IDs, email addresses, and pay information. It has influenced both the health plan members as well as the employees. The backup plan found the information break and informed the FBI of the crime. The office is as of now directing an examination and Anthem is…

A global group of programmers who could get to a server holding Secured Health center Data of more than 405,000 patients from Texas social insurance. It is 3rd biggest safety break answered to the Department of Domestic Rights of the Sector of Clinical and Human Amenity. The programmers accessed a PC server utilized by St. Joseph Clinical Structure in Bryan, Texas for a time of 3 days in 2013 (December) and the break was reported on February 4, , despite the fact that the information was gotten to above 48 hour time span in the middle of 16 to 18…

The new version of HIPAA rules and regulation is HIPAA omnibus rule which is came under force this year in March. The organizations must have to adopt these new policies by HIPAA so that they can avoid breaches. This new version by Omnibus is enforceable and has high power. They are providing excellent security controls on private data of patients so that they cannot be leaked. They are providing new restriction rules that authorized person will only see that records which it has to be. The breach of rule is now easily accessible and liable in these 4 main criteria:…