[BreachExchange] Cyber Criminals Upping The Ante

[Audrey McNeil]

http://www.healthitoutcomes.com/doc/cyber-criminals-upping-the-ante-0001

Experts have been warning of the increasing dangers of ransomware attacks
for months as Health IT Outcomes reported, and recent events are validating
their predictions. Attacks against Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in
California in February and Methodist Hospital in Kentucky in March have
shown ransomware was a serious threat to healthcare.

Now, The Washington Post reports a third attack has been made public, this
time against Washington-based MedStar Health, in which a virus infected the
hospital’s computer network and forced the shutdown of email and records
database.

The FBI is investigating this latest breach, though MedStar officials say
there is “no evidence that information has been stolen.” Company
spokeswoman Ann Nickels said in a statement, “MedStar acted quickly with a
decision to take down all system interfaces to prevent the virus from
spreading throughout the organization. We are working with our IT and
cybersecurity partners to fully assess and address the situation.”

The Washington Post called the event a “ransomware” attack in which a
hacker was demanding $19,000 as payment for releasing data.

“The attempt to negatively impact an institution designed to save lives and
care for those in need is a sad and troublesome reality of our times,”
MedStar Health CEO/President Kenneth A. Samet said. “Not only for MedStar
Health, but for our entire industry and the communities we serve.”

Experts are also waning a new version of ransomware has emerged, called
PowerWare. SecurityAffairs reports this new version of ransomware exploits
PowerShell, the native Windows framework. What makes it even more dangerous
is that it is fileless.

One reason medical facilities are particularly vulnerable to these attacks
is because they don’t properly train their employees on how to avoid being
hacked, Sinan Eren, general manager at Avast Mobile Enterprise told The
Washington Post. Eren has worked in cybersecurity for government and
healthcare organizations for two decades. “It’s not like the
financial-services industry, where they train employees how to spot
suspicious emails,” said Eren.

Another factor making hospitals ripe targets for cybercriminals is that
many of them still have outdated computer systems that can’t easily fend
off such attacks. Many institutions lack the funding to make the necessary
upgrades. “There’s a lack of budget, a lack of talent to handle these
issues,” Eren explained. “Sometimes the human capital might not be there.
All these things are an incremental cost to their systems. Therefore, they
kind of push the can down the road to deal with technical updates later.”

Ultimately, these attacks highlight the fact data security is currently
working reactively to counter cyberthreats. As cybercriminals become
increasingly sophisticated in their attacks, IT security measures need to
become more and more proactive in their protection of files and
information, and hospitals need to procure the funding to update their
systems accordingly to ensure that they are capable of meeting today’s most
likely threats.
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