{"id":813542,"date":"2024-12-20T23:28:39","date_gmt":"2024-12-21T05:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/20\/cyberattack-roundup-ransomware-hits-georgia-hospital-and-colorado-pathology-services\/"},"modified":"2024-12-20T23:28:39","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T05:28:39","slug":"cyberattack-roundup-ransomware-hits-georgia-hospital-and-colorado-pathology-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/20\/cyberattack-roundup-ransomware-hits-georgia-hospital-and-colorado-pathology-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyberattack roundup: Ransomware hits Georgia hospital and Colorado pathology services"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

From small community hospitals like Memorial Hospital and Manor in Bainbridge, Georgia, to the largest providers, ransomware, business email compromise and other cyber threats are causing daily care disruption in the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica is now averaging two health system data breaches per day,\u201d Greg Garcia, executive director of the Health Sector Coordinating Council Cybersecurity Working Group, said in his\u00a0opening keynote<\/a>\u00a0at the HIMSS Healthcare Cybersecurity Forum last week in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

Cyber threat actors often take advantage of basic vulnerabilities, targeting people who work for hospitals and health systems. Case in point \u2013 the large health system Kaiser Permanente said Sunday that it sent a notice to affected individuals in Southern California whose personal health data was compromised\u00a0when an unauthorized party accessed two employee email accounts.<\/p>\n

But they can also be savvy with their exploits, employing phishing attacks bolstered by sophisticated social engineering. Earlier this month, a cyber exploit\u00a0resulted in the exfiltration of patient data associated with 1.8 million individuals from Colorado-based independent pathology service provider Summit Pathology.<\/p>\n

Georgia hospital loses EHR access<\/h2>\n

Memorial Hospital and Manor, a community hospital in Decatur County Georgia, told its followers on Facebook Sunday that a ransomware attack has impacted its electronic health records and that patients may encounter care delays.<\/p>\n

The attack was discovered over the weekend after team members noticed virus protection alerts, the hospital said in the\u00a0post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Please bear with us as you may experience longer wait times when you come to either the hospital or physician offices as we are working on a paper-based process,” Memorial Hospital and Manor said.<\/p>\n

No information about the attack is currently available on the hospital’s website, though the hospital said it is evaluating what it needs to do to restore access to its patient records, according to a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0by local\u00a0WALB News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Healthcare IT News<\/em>\u00a0reached out to the hospital for a statement, and if one becomes available, we will update this story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kaiser\u00a0reports patient data breach<\/h2>\n

On Friday, the health system posted a notice for its Southern California members about a health information privacy matter discovered on September 3. The unauthorized party gained access to the email accounts of two workforce members, according to the\u00a0notice<\/a>\u00a0posted on its website.<\/p>\n

“Upon learning of the incident, we terminated the unauthorized access and immediately began an investigation to determine the scope of the access,” Kaiser Permanente said.<\/p>\n

“After validating the email contents, we determined that some patients\u2019 protected health information was involved.”<\/p>\n

While the health system said that Social Security numbers and financial information were not involved, protected health information including first and last names, dates of birth, medical record numbers, and medical information were “potentially accessed and\/or viewed.”<\/p>\n

While health system operations were maintained, affected individuals were contacted directly, Kaiser Permanente said.<\/p>\n

Attack on lab services affects patients<\/h2>\n

On October 18, Summit Pathology of Loveland, Colorado, reported to the U.S. Health and Human Services that 1,813,538, had their data breached in a hacking incident.<\/p>\n

“The impacted systems contained demographic and healthcare information which includes names, addresses, medical billing and insurance information, certain medical information such as diagnoses, and demographic information such as dates of birth, Social Security numbers and financial information,” the pathology services company said in a\u00a0notice<\/a>\u00a0on its website.<\/p>\n

On or around April 18, Summit said it had identified suspicious activity on its network and immediately took steps to secure it, launching an investigation with the assistance of third-party forensic specialists.\u00a0They were able to\u00a0identify\u00a0which files “may have been accessed or acquired by the unauthorized cybercriminal.”<\/p>\n

Summit also said that after a\u00a0review of\u00a0its policies and procedures, it\u00a0added new “administrative and technical safeguards to help prevent future attacks.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Oklahoma City-based Murphy Law Firm said in an October 31\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0that it is establishing a class action lawsuit and investigating claims related to the incident.<\/p>\n

Summit’s forensic investigation “determined that cybercriminals infiltrated its inadequately secured computer environment and thereby gained access to its data files,” the law firm said.<\/p>\n

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
\nEmail:\u00a0af**<\/span>@***<\/span>ss.org<\/span><\/a><\/em>
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Samatha Noren
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From small community hospitals like Memorial Hospital and Manor in Bainbridge, Georgia, to the largest providers, ransomware, business email compromise and other cyber threats are causing daily care disruption in the United States.\u00a0 \u201cAmerica is now averaging two health system data breaches per day,\u201d Greg Garcia, executive director of the Health Sector Coordinating Council Cybersecurity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":813543,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31066,731],"tags":[12324,6128],"class_list":{"0":"post-813542","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cyberattack","8":"category-roundup","9":"tag-cyberattack","10":"tag-roundup"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}