In a World of Increasing Vulnerability to Cyber Attacks: Are You Protected?

June 29, 2017

Compliance Services

Healthcare Information Technology

The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced Tuesday, June 27, that another international ransomware attack occurred and may be affecting Healthcare and Public Health Sectors. The malware is known as GoldenEye or Petya and Ukraine was ground zero for the infection. The attacked shut down important infrastructure including central banks, airports, metro transport, and even the Chernobyl power plant. The ransomware payout method was different and more complex than the typical payout method and the decryption keys to restore networks failed. The differences surrounding the payout are leading analysts to ask an uncomfortable question. Was money the point of this specific global attack or was this a national state attack that spread to other nations? This once again is a humble reminder of our increasing vulnerability as we continue to share data across multiple third party vendors in different states and perhaps different countries. Between this current Petya attack and last month’s WannaCry, it is estimated there has been a total $8 billion dollar global economic loss. It is more important than ever before to ensure your networks are behind properly configured firewalls, your emails are protected with intuitive spam filters, and above all else each individual user behind a keyboard is aware of how to protect your network from malicious intrusion.

If you have questions about your healthcare organization’s security, or know security improvements are needed please contact Coker Group to speak with one of our healthcare cybersecurity specialists.

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Contributors

Jeffery Daigrepont

Senior Vice President

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