Ransomware Attack Freezes Health Records Access at 110 Nursing Homes

[upnorth]

Content source

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/11/28/ransomware-attack-freezes-health-records-access-at-110-nursing-homes/

Happy Thanksgiving: your elder loved one’s life may be at risk.

About 110 nursing homes and acute-care facilities have been crippled by a ransomware attack on their IT provider, Virtual Care Provider Inc. (VCPI), which is based in the US state of Wisconsin and which serves up data hosting, security and access management to nursing homes across the country. The attack was still ongoing on Monday, when cybersecurity writer Brian Krebs first reported the assault. Krebs says it involves a ransomware strain called Ryuk, known for being used by a hacking group that calculates how much ransom victimized organizations can pay based on their size and perceived value.

Whoever it was who launched the attack, they got it wrong in this case. VCPI chief executive and owner Karen Christianson told Krebs that her company can’t afford to pay the roughly $14 million Bitcoin ransom that the attackers are demanding. Employees have been asking when they’ll get paid, but the top priority is to wrestle back access to electronic medical records. The attack affected virtually all of the firm’s core offerings: internet service, email, access to patient records, client billing and phone systems, and even the internal payroll operations that VCPI uses to pay its workforce of nearly 150. Regaining access to electronic health records (EHR) is the top priority because without that access, the lives of the seniors and others who reside in critical-care facilities are at stake.

 

[Venustus]

These are they type of scumbags that need to be incarcerated for life!!

 

[Antus67]

Now these cyber scum bums have reached a all time low attacking seniors especially critical-care facilities.

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

And those who also deserves to be blamed are those admins who let this happen. Ransomware arent new, admins don't have any excuse, they had years to learn about such threats and how prevent them and not even doing backups.

 

[upnorth]

These are they type of scumbags that need to be incarcerated for life!!

Agree, and then a special place in hell.

 

[plat]

It costs a tiny fraction of the ransom to have protected this network. Maybe just the salary for the time spent to make some critical and well-informed modifications. You miss your vaccinations, you catch a dreaded disease, it's your own damn fault. This entitled mindset of "poor pitiful me" got old a while ago, with the Baltimore fiasco. Own it, don't bemoan it.

 

[DDE_Server]

Really they are scums. have anyone but him/herself in the shoes of the life of those patient who are lives at the stack . really scums .

 

[plat]

I agree, the developers and operators don't think like regular people because of the remove from the mainstream. They have their Robin Hood rationalizations and agendas.....

Where this has occurred on their watches: what are the IT people and administrators doing 8 hours a day? Donuts? Texting? In some scenarios, they should face criminal charges and loss of their jobs and pensions. That's how dire this epidemic is. Hire an IT consultant, then, and bring him/her/them back on a schedule if you can't do this internally.

Calling all IT who may be surfing on the job with their feet on the desk: visit MalwareTips and read these threads. It's FREE of charge.

 

[Venustus]

Agreed.. Most of the IT people I know suffer from neolithic incompetence

 

[upnorth]

Really they are scums. have anyone but him/herself in the shoes of the life of those patient who are lives at the stack . really scums .

Low life attention seekers, as well described also in the London Bridge incident today.

 

[DDE_Server]

Low life attention seekers, as well described also in the London Bridge incident today.

yes to make Dirty money with innocent patients life cannot imagine how shameless those people are