When ransomware hits hospitals
A major US hospital chain is back on paper after a ransomware attack. Downtime procedures are part of security.
This week Universal Health Services, one of the largest hospital operators in the US, had to shut down computer systems across its facilities after a ransomware attack. Staff are using paper charts. Earlier this month, an attack on a university hospital in Germany forced it to turn away emergency patients.
In healthcare, an IT outage is a patient safety issue.
What any clinic or hospital should have:
- Downtime procedures that people have practised: paper forms, printed schedules, how to order medicine.
- Offline access to critical information like allergies and current medications.
- Separate networks for medical devices.
- Tested, offline backups of clinical systems.
- MFA on remote access, and fast patching of VPNs and email.
Security teams and clinical teams need to plan this together.