Healthcare Cybersecurity

HITRUST and Trend Micro Join Forces to Improve Organizational Cyber Threat Management

Posted by HIPAA Journal

The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) has announced a new partnership with Trend Micro. The aim of the partnership is to speed the delivery of cyber threat research and education and improve organizational threat management.

The partnership has seen the creation of the Cyber Threat Management and Response Center which will help to expand cyber threat information sharing and improve the service to healthcare organizations at all levels of cybersecurity maturity, helping them to deal with the increasing range of cyber threats and frequency of attacks.

HITRUST already shares cyber threat intelligence with organizations that have signed up with its Cyber Threat Xchange (CTX) – the most widely adopted threat information sharing organization for the healthcare industry.

HITRUST collects, analyses and distributes cyber threat information through CTX, including indicators of threats and compromise and has been working hard over the past 18 months to expand the collection of cyber threat information through its Enhanced IOC Collection Program. HITRUST now leads the industry in the identification of unique IOCs.

HITRUST has been trying to improve its threat information sharing program to better serve the healthcare industry. HITRUST has identified a number of key areas where improvements can be made, including speeding up the collection, analysis and delivery of threat information, advancing its threat hunting capabilities and improving reporting, integration, education and collaboration.

After assessing costs, skill sets, available resources and current capabilities, HITRUST determined the best way to improve its service was through a partnership with an established and well-qualified cyber research lab. Trend Micro was the natural choice.

One of the key areas where the Cyber Threat Management and Response Center will be able to help is ensuring threat information is shared in a format that can be easily consumed and leveraged by all healthcare organizations to mitigate risk.

HITRUST points out that through the HITRUST CTX, threat information was shared with healthcare organizations about both the WannaCry and NotPetya attacks. The outreach to organizations occurred soon after the threat was detected, with threat indicators shared 14 days before the first organization reported it had experienced an attack. The information allowed many healthcare organizations to take proactive steps to mitigate risk. However, HITRUST found that some healthcare organizations were unable to consume the information it shared.

Through the Cyber Threat Management and Response Center HITRUST “will deliver capabilities to address cyber threat management, defense, and response based on an organization’s cyber maturity level.”

“The HITRUST CTX has established itself as a leader in the collection of threat indicators. Now the focus needs to be ensuring organizations of any cyber maturity can leverage this information in a timely manner,” said Kevin Charest, DSVP and CISO, Health Care Service Corp. He explained that “Information sharing has no value if people can’t quickly act upon it, making the HITRUST CTX transition to cyber threat management a crucial step for industry.”

HITRUST has outlined the first phase of expanding its resources through the Cyber Threat Management and Response Center and says the new partnership with Trend Micro will allow it to offer:

  • Access to the world’s best threat research lab will enable HITRUST to collect and distribute a much broader range of IOCs
  • Analyses and research will be disseminated much more rapidly and geared to organizations at all levels of maturity
  • The center will have access to more healthcare industry specific vulnerabilities and threat information
  • Vulnerability information and IOC and TTP linkage with the HITRUST Threat Catalogue will be expanded
  • The center will have the resources to enable more responsive community engagement and assistance, including inquiry response and IOC submission analysis
  • HITRUST will improve tracking and monthly reporting of cyber threats targeting healthcare data and healthcare organizations

HITRUST has confirmed that it will continue to provide basic access to the HITRUST CTX and the new HITRUST Cyber Threat Management and Response Center at no cost, with the new center to be made available from October 1, 2017.

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Medical Device Cybersecurity Act Takes Aim at Medical Device Security

Posted by HIPAA Journal

A new bill has been introduced in Congress that aims to ensure the confidential medical information of patients on medical devices is protected and security is improved to make the devices more resilient to hacks.

The bill – The Medical Device Cybersecurity Act of 2017 – was introduced on August 1, 2017 by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and is supported by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security (AEHIS).

Recent ransomware and malware attacks and hacks have demonstrated how vulnerable some medical devices are. Ransomware incidents have resulted in medical devices being taken out of action, causing major disruptions at hospitals and delaying the treatment of patients. There is no sign of these incidents slowing or stopping. In all likelihood, they will increase.

While healthcare organizations are working hard to improve their defenses against cyberattacks, medical device manufacturers are not doing enough to ensure their devices are secure and remain so for the lifespan of the products. Many medical devices have been found to contain a slew of vulnerabilities that could be exploited by cybercriminals.

Yesterday, The Department of Homeland Security’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) issued a warning about vulnerabilities in Siemens CT and PET scanner systems. The four vulnerabilities could all be exploited remotely and ICS-CERT said attacks would require a low skill level.

In March last year, the Department of Homeland Security issued an alert about the Pyxis Supply Station from CareFusion. The drug cabinet system was found to have 1,418 vulnerabilities.

Last year flaws were discovered in St. Jude Medical devices that if exploited, would cause the devices to malfunction.

Medical devices are coming to market that have not been adequately tested for security flaws. The problem is widespread. Earlier this year, researchers from security firm WhiteScope conducted an analysis of implantable cardiac devices and programmers. The researchers discovered more than 8,000 security flaws in multiple devices.

A new form of MedJack malware was discovered earlier this year. The malware was developed specifically to attack medical devices such as heart monitors and MRI machines. An earlier version of the malware was used to attack medical devices at three hospitals in 2016.

As Blumenthal correctly points out, “The security of medical devices is in critical condition.” The new bill seeks to address the problem and improve the security of medical devices and increase transparency. If passed, the Medical Device Cybersecurity Act would make healthcare organizations aware of the cyber capabilities of devices and the extent to which those devices have been tested.

Blumenthal points out in a recent blog post, “My bill will strengthen the entire healthcare network against the ubiquitous threat of cyberattacks. Without this legislation, insecure and easily-exploitable medical devices will continue to put Americans’ health and confidential personal information at risk.”

The Medical Device Cybersecurity Act of 2017 would amend the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Some of the key changes detailed in the Medical Device Cybersecurity Act of 2017 are:

Require all medical devices to be thoroughly tested for vulnerabilities before sale. A cyber report card would be created for devices that would detail the tests that have been performed.

Remote access protections would need to be incorporated into devices to prevent unauthorized access from inside and outside of hospitals.

The bill would require crucial cybersecurity fixes and updates to remain free and not require FDA recertification.

Manufacturers would be required to issue guidance for end-of-life of the devices, detailing how the devices should be disposed of to avoid the exposure of sensitive data. Blumenthal also proposes that ICS-CERT’s responsibilities are expanded to include medical devices.

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Warning Issued Over Vulnerabilities in Siemens CT and PET Scanners: Exploits Publicly Available

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Warnings have been issued about four vulnerabilities in Siemens CT and PET scanner systems following the discovery of four publicly available exploits. Siemens is currently developing patches to address the vulnerabilities.

The flaws affect multiple Siemens medical imaging systems including Siemens CT, PET, SPECT systems and medical imaging workflow systems (SPECT Workplaces/Symbia.net) that are based on Windows 7.

The vulnerabilities allow remote code execution, potentially giving attackers access to the scanners and networks to which the systems are connected. One of the main risks is malware and ransomware infections, which in the case of the latter can prevent the devices from being used. It is also possible that a malicious actor could interfere with the systems causing patients harm.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) has also issued an alert, warning healthcare organizations to ensure the devices are run on a “dedicated, network segment and protected IT environment” until the patches are applied. Siemens rated the flaws as highly critical, giving them a CVSS score of 9.8 out of 10 and suggests the devices should be run in standalone mode until the patches are applied.

To protect the systems from attack, healthcare organizations should ensure the systems are not be accessible over the Internet and are isolated from other networks and located behind firewalls.

If remote access is required, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) should be used, although the use of VPNs is not without risks. Many VPNs also have vulnerabilities that could be remotely exploited. ICS-CERT says if remote access is unavoidable, the latest versions of VPNs should be used.

One of the vulnerabilities concerns improper restriction of operations within the bounds of a memory buffer, two are code injection vulnerabilities with one exploiting permissions, privileges and access controls. All the vulnerabilities are remotely exploitable.  The code injection vulnerabilities can be exploited by sending a specially crafted HTTP request to over port 80 and 443 to the Microsoft IIS webserver. The remaining two vulnerabilities could be exploited by sending a specially crafted request to the HP Client automation service.

ICS-CERT says exploiting the vulnerabilities would only require a low skill level.

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Protenus Provides Insight into 2017 Healthcare Data Breach Trends

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Protenus, in conjunction with Databreaches.net, has produced its Breach Barometer mid-year review. The report covers all healthcare data breaches reported over the past 6 months and provides valuable insights into 2017 data breach trends.

The Breach Barometer is a comprehensive review of healthcare data breaches, covering not only the data breaches reported through the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights’ breach reporting tool, but also media reports of incidents and public findings. Prior to inclusion in the report, all breaches are independently confirmed by databreaches.net. The Breach Barometer reports delve into the main causes of data breaches reported by healthcare providers, health plans and their business associates.

In a webinar on Wednesday, Protenus Co-Founder and president Robert Lord and Dissent of databreaches.net discussed the findings of the mid-year review.

Lord explained that between January and June 2017 there have been 233 reported data breaches. Those breaches have impacted 3,159,236 patients. The largest reported breach in the first half of the year resulted in the theft of 697,800 records and was caused by a rogue insider – one of 96 incidents involving insiders.

Out of those 96 incidents, 57 were due to insider error – 423,000 records – and 36 incidents due to insider wrongdoing –743,665 records. The remaining three breaches could not be classified.

Insider incidents are likely to be far higher than the figures in the Breach Barometer report. Dissent explained that many incidents are not being disclosed publicly or reported to HHS. One of the best examples being misconfigured MongoDB databases. Dissent explained that many organizations have not reported that protected health information has been exposed online, even though security researchers have discovered data could be accessed, without authentication, via the Internet. When these incidents are reported, they are often reported to HHS as hacking incidents, even though the root cause is human error.

The first six months of the year saw 75 hacking incidents and 29 ransomware incidents reported. As was explained, ransomware incidents are similarly underreported, even though OCR has made it clear that ransomware attacks are reportable breaches. The true figure is likely to be far worse.

The breakdown for the year was 41% of incidents caused by insiders, 32% due to hacking, 18% due to loss/theft of records and devices and the cause of 9% of the breaches is still unknown.

Hacking may be the second biggest cause of breaches, but hacking has resulted in the exposure/theft of the most records. 1,684,904 records were exposed/stolen as a result of hacking, 1,166,674 records were exposed/stolen by insiders, 112,302 records exposed due to theft/loss and 178,420 records exposed in incidents with unknown causes.

To put the figures into perspective, between January and December 2016 there were 450 incidents reported. Data breaches have been occurring at a similar rate to last year. While the number of reported incidents has remained fairly constant, there has been an increase in the severity of those breaches with this year likely to see far more individuals impacted by breaches than last year.

Last year, approximately 2 million patients were affected by insider incidents. This year, 1.17 million individuals have already been impacted by insider incidents. Hacking incidents are also up. Last year there were 120 confirmed hacking incidents for the entire year. This year there have already been 75 reported incidents.

In June, 52 healthcare data breaches were reported, the highest total for any month of the year to date by some distance. The second biggest monthly breach total was 39 incidents. June also saw the third highest number of individuals impacted by the breaches, with 729,930 records confirmed as exposed or stolen.

Robert Lord explained that the time from the initial breach date to discovery is particularly bad in the healthcare industry. The mean time to discover a breach was 325.6 days, with a median of 53 days. Healthcare organizations are not discovering breaches quickly enough. Fast detection can greatly reduce the harm caused to patients, and as the Ponemon Institute has shown, also the cost of mitigation.

There is some good news however. The time taken to report breaches to OCR has improved over the past 6 months. The mean time to report breaches is 54.5 days and the median 57 days. HIPAA allows 60 days to report data breaches and notify affected individuals. In June, both the mean and the median were under the maximum time frame allowed by the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule.

So, what does the rest of 2017 has in store? Dissent explained that 2017 has been a “no good, horrible, very bad year.” Unfortunately, there is no indication that the rest of the year will be any better. The next six months are likely to be just as bad, and 2017 may surpass last year for both the number of breaches and the number of patients impacted by those incidents.

While other industry sectors have hacking/malware as the main breach cause, insider incidents are the biggest problem for the healthcare industry. Healthcare organizations need to take steps to prevent these breaches. As Robert Lord explained, technologies can be deployed to help prevent insider incidents and detect them promptly when they occur.

One of the most important take home messages from the report is that people’s lives are seriously affected by healthcare data breaches. More must be done to prevent breaches and ensure they are detected promptly. Fast detection and notification allows patients and health plan members to take action to reduce the harm caused.

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Beazley Insights: 133% Increase in Healthcare Ransomware Demands

Posted by HIPAA Journal

Beazley has released its half-yearly Insights report detailing the causes of data breaches experienced by its clients between January and June 2017.

Across the four industries covered by the report, hacks and malware – including ransomware- caused the highest percentage of breaches – 32% of the 1,330 incidents that the firm helped mitigate in the first half of 2017.

In the professional services industry, hacks/malware incidents accounted for 44% of the 1H total, in higher education it was 43% and the financial services was on 37%. Only healthcare bucked the trend with hacks/malware accounting for 18% of the total – the second biggest cause of incidents affecting the industry.

The report shows that the first six months of the year saw a 50% increase in ransomware attacks across all industries, with the healthcare sector experiencing the highest increase in ransomware demands, jumping 133% in those six months.

While malware/ransomware attacks may top the list of breach causes, they are closely followed by accidental breaches caused by employees or third-party suppliers, which accounted for 30% of the total. However, for the healthcare industry, accidental data breaches were the leading cause of data security incidents, accounting for 42% of all healthcare industry breaches.

These accidental disclosures of PHI include a wide range of errors such as misdirected faxes and emails and the improper release of discharge papers. Beazley reports that the percentage of these incidents has not changed year over year.

The report authors point out that “This continuing high level of accidental data breaches suggests that organizations are still failing to put in place the robust measures needed to safeguard client data and confidentiality.”

The second biggest cause of healthcare data breaches was malware/ransomware incidents – One percentage point higher than last year’s report. Insider theft was in third place causing 14% of incidents, followed by the physical loss of records (8%) and portable device incidents (6%). Social engineering attacks accounted for 3% of the total with payment fraud on 1%. The remaining 8% of incidents were attributed to unknown/other causes.

The report authors point out that “This continuing high level of accidental data breaches suggests that organizations are still failing to put in place the robust measures needed to safeguard client data and confidentiality.”

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How Often Should Healthcare Employees Receive Security Awareness Training?

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Security awareness training is a requirement of HIPAA, but how often should healthcare employees receive security awareness training?

Recent Phishing and Ransomware Attacks Highlight Need for Better Security Awareness Training

Phishing is one of the biggest security threats for healthcare organizations. Cybercriminals are sending phishing emails in the millions in an attempt to get end users to reveal sensitive information such as login credentials or to install malware and ransomware. While attacks are often ransom, healthcare employees are also being targeted with spear phishing emails.

In December last year, anti-phishing solution provider PhishMe released the results of a study showing 91% of cyberattacks start with a phishing email. Spear phishing campaigns rose 55% last year, ransomware attacks increased by 400% and business email compromise (BEC) losses were up by 1,300%.

In recent weeks, there have been several phishing attacks reported to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights. Those attacks have resulted in email accounts being compromised. In July alone, 9 email-related security incidents have been reported to OCR.

The recent WannaCry ransomware attacks may have exploited unaddressed vulnerabilities, but email remains the number one vector for spreading ransomware and malware. Many of these email attacks could have been prevented if employees had been trained to detect threats and knew how to respond appropriately.

Regular Security Awareness Training is a Requirement of HIPAA

Security awareness training is more than just a checkbox item to tick off to demonstrate compliance with HIPAA Rules. If fact, a one-off training session does not meet the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule.

45 C.F.R. § 164.308(a)(5)(i) requires covered entities to “Implement a security awareness and training program for all members of its workforce (including management)”. As OCR recently pointed out in its July Cybersecurity Newsletter, all members of staff in an organization “can, knowingly or unknowingly, be the cause of HIPAA violations or data breaches.” It may not be possible to reduce risk to zero, but security awareness training can help to reduce risk to an acceptable level.

How Often Should Healthcare Employees Receive Security Awareness Training?

Cybercriminals are constantly changing tactics and new threats are emerging on an almost daily basis.  An effective security awareness program must therefore provide ongoing training; raising awareness of new threats as they emerge and when threat intelligence is shared by Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (ISAOs).

After the provision of initial training, HIPAA requires healthcare employees to receive periodic security updates – 45 C.F.R. § 164.308(a)(5)(ii)(A). While HIPAA does not stipulate how often these “periodic security updates” should be issued, OCR points out that monthly security updates work well for many healthcare organizations, with additional training provided bi-annually.

Some healthcare organizations may require less or more frequent updates and training sessions, which should be determined through the organization’s risk analyses.

The security updates should include details of the latest security threats including phishing and social engineering scams that have been reported by other covered entities or shared by an ISAO. The security alerts can take many forms – email bulletins, posters, newsletters, team discussions, classroom-based training or CBT sessions. It is up to the covered entity to determine which are the most appropriate. Annual or biannual training sessions should be more in-depth and should cover new risks faced by an organization and recap on previous training.

OCR also points out in its recent newsletter that covered entities must document any training provided to employees. Without documentation on the training provided, newsletters sent, updates issued and evidence of workforce participation, it will not be possible to demonstrate to OCR auditors that training has taken place. HIPAA requirements for documenting training are covered in 45 C.F.R. §§ 164.316(b) and 164.530(j).

OCR provides some training materials on privacy and security, with third-party training companies and anti-phishing solution providers offering specific training courses on the full range of cybersecurity threats.

Tailoring training to the needs of the individual will help to ensure that all employees become security assets and organizations develop a robust last line of defense against phishing attacks.

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47% of Healthcare Organizations Have Experienced A HIPAA Data Breach in the Past 2 Years

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The KPMG 2017 Cyber Healthcare & Life Sciences Survey shows there has been a 10 percentage point increase in reported HIPAA data breaches in the past two years.

The survey was conducted on 100 C-suite information security executives including CIOs, CSOs, CISOs and CTOs from healthcare providers and health plans generating more than $500 in annual revenue.

47% of healthcare organizations have reported a HIPAA data breach in the past two years, whereas in 2015, when the survey was last conducted, 37% of healthcare organizations said they had experienced a security-related HIPAA breach in the past two years.

Preparedness for data breaches has improved over the past two years. When asked whether they were ready to deal with a HIPAA data breach, only 16% of organizations said they were completely ready in 2015. This year, 35% of healthcare providers and health plans said they were completely ready to deal with a breach if one occurred.

Ransomware has become a major threat since the survey was last conducted. 32% of all respondents said they had experienced a security breach in the past two years that involved ransomware. 41% of those respondents said they paid the ransom to unlock their data.

70% of organizations that experienced at least one security breach in the past 2 years said a malicious actor hacked their system as a result of an unaddressed vulnerability, 54% of respondents said they had experienced a single-system based malware incident and 36% said employees had responded to phishing emails resulting in a system compromise. 26% said they had experienced a breach of a third-party device or service, while 20% said they had experienced a breach as a result of an insider.

The probability of organizations experiencing a security breach has increased considerably in the past two years, yet there was a decrease in organizations that believed cybersecurity was a board matter. In 2015, 87% of organizations believed cybersecurity was a board issue. This year, only 79% of respondents said they thought cybersecurity was a C-level issue.

KPMG Healthcare Advisory Leader Dion Sheidy said, “There needs to be a higher degree of vigilance among boards and executive suites as attacks become much more sophisticated, especially as doctors need to share information to improve quality and as connected medical devices and wearables proliferate.”

Investment in cybersecurity protections has also decreased. In 2015, 88% of organizations said they had invested in information protection measures in the past 12 months. This year, only 66% said they had made such an investment.

When it comes to investment, organizations appear to be favoring technology rather than staff. Only 15% believe increases in staff numbers and higher quality staff are important for improving their security posture.

Only 41% of respondents said they were planning on investing in hiring or training staff, with 76% saying they were planning on investment more in technology. Budgets for training staff were low, with a quarter of respondents saying they were investing less than $1,000 per cybersecurity team member. 83% said improvements would be made to policies and data access controls and processes.

KPMG Cyber Security Group in Healthcare & Life Sciences Leader Michael Ebert said, “A solid cyber security program needs people, processes and technology and short-changing staff and the process structure needed to adequately govern, manage and monitor the technology is a faulty approach,” explaining that “Software can only protect you so far and staff is important when it comes time to respond to a data breach.

When asked what they thought the main targeted asset was, only 30% believed it was patient data. Financial information was seen as the data most likely targeted (69%), followed by patient/clinical research (63%) competitive market analysis (49%) and the PII of employees (45%).

The biggest threats were seen to be state-sponsored actors (53%), individual hackers (49%) and hactivists (47%).

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HITRUST Launches Community Extension Program to Promote Collaboration on Risk Management

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HITRUST has launched a new community extension program that will see town hall events taking place in 50 major cities across the United States over the course of the next 12 months. The aim of the community extension program is to improve education and collaboration on risk management and encourage greater community collaboration.

With the volume and variety of cyber threats having increased significantly in recent years, healthcare organizations have been forced to respond by improving their cybersecurity programs, including adopting cybersecurity frameworks and taking part in HITRUST programs. Healthcare organizations have been able to improve their resilience against cyberthreats, although the process has not been easy.

HITRUST has learned that the process can be made much easier with improved education and collaboration between healthcare organizations. The community extension program is an ideal way to streamline adoption of the HITRUST CSF and other HITRUST programs, while promoting greater collaboration between healthcare organizations and encouraging greater community collaboration.

The events will allow healthcare organizations to share best practices and the lessons they have learned from conducting their own risk management programs, including discussing some of the many challenges they have faced.

Tufts Medical Center played an important role in the development of the community extension program, encouraging HITRUST to run the community sessions. Tufts Medical Center CISO, Taylor Lehmann, said “The importance of improving the overall cyber resilience of organizations cannot be overstated. Although it’s a difficult goal, HITRUST provides a number of programs that make the goal achievable and sharing best practices, lessons learned and remediation strategies makes the community stronger.”

HITRUST Assurance Strategy and Community Development Vice President Michael Parisi said, “This program provides significant value by allowing organizations to engage with, and learn from, others in the community about how they approach the challenges related to managing risk, controlling compliance costs while effectively implementing a strong security posture and defending against cyber threats.”

The time it takes to adopt HITRUST programs can be shortened through education and knowledge transfer, which will be a key component of the community extension program sessions.

Some of the main topics that will be covered at the events include:

  • Structuring and implementing an information risk management program
  • Considerations in implementing the HITRUST CSF
  • Leveraging the HITRUST CSF to implement the NIST Cybersecurity Framework
  • Considerations regarding a HITRUST CSF Assessment and reporting options
  • Leveraging the HITRUST Cyber Threat Catalogue
  • Implementing a third-party assurance program and effective vendor risk management
  • How to align information risk management and cyber insurance programs
  • Engaging in cyber information sharing and how it supports cyber threat management regardless of size or cyber maturity

HITRUST Community Extension Program Dates

The events will take place at town halls in major cities and will be hosted by healthcare organizations from each community, assisted by HITRUST CSF assessors. There will be no charge for attendees.

The events are likely to be popular and HITRUST will add more locations to meet demand over the course of the next 12 months.

The first six events will be held in Boston, MA, hosted by Tufts Medical Center; Houston, TX, hosted by Texas Children’s Hospital; Denver, CO, hosted by Centura Health; Dallas, TX hosted by Blue Cross Shield of Texas; Cleveland, OH, hosted by Cleveland Clinic; and Seattle, WA, hosted by Microsoft.

The first event in Boston is scheduled to take place on September 14, 2017, with further dates to be confirmed. Interested parties can now register for the first event and view details of future events on this link.

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4-Month Data Breach Discovered During Ransomware Investigation: 300,000 Patients Impacted

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Women’s Health Care Group of Pennsylvania, one of the largest healthcare networks in the state, has alerted approximately 300,000 patients that some of their sensitive protected health information has been compromised.

The types of data exposed – and potentially stolen – include names, addresses, dates of birth, lab test orders, lab test results, blood types, race, gender, pregnancy status, medical record numbers, employer information, insurance details, medical diagnoses, physicians’ names and Social Security numbers.

Identity theft protection services are being offered to all affected patients. Those individuals would do well to activate those services promptly, as hackers gained access to a server and workstation containing the above information in January this year, with access to systems possible until at least May.

In May, a virus was installed on a server/workstation preventing the hospital from accessing patient data. While ransomware can be installed as a result of a phishing email or software vulnerability, in this case it appears to have been deployed by individuals who already had access to its systems. This is not atypical. If hackers manage to gain access to a healthcare network, it is becoming increasingly common for ransomware to be deployed when access to the system is no longer required – Once all useful data have been exfiltrated, for instance.

Women’s Health Care Group of Pennsylvania rapidly isolated the affected devices to prevent the spread of the infection and external cybersecurity experts were called in to conduct a forensic investigation to determine the nature and scope of the security breach. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was also notified.

While a ransom demand had been issued by the attackers, no money was paid as all data could be recovered from a backup. Women’s Health Care Group of Pennsylvania says no protected health information was lost.

The investigation revealed that hackers had first gained access to its systems in January 2017 after taking advantage of a security vulnerability, with the same vulnerability believed to have been used to install ransomware. While Women’s Health Care Group of Pennsylvania did not find any evidence to suggest information on the server or workstation had been viewed or stolen, data access and theft could not be ruled out.

This is the second such incident to be reported in the past few weeks. Earlier this month, Peachtree Neurological Clinic of Atlanta, GA announced that an investigation into a ransomware attack revealed its systems had been compromised 15 months previously.

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