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Healthcare ransomware attacks threaten patient safety

This article is part of the Pulse issue of March 2018, Vol. 6, No. 2
A new cybersecurity scourge is plaguing health IT. It's the fear, and reality, of healthcare ransomware attacks crippling hospital data systems and harming patient safety. Of course, the traditional cybersecurity specter is still hovering: hacker-triggered health data breaches that have terrorized healthcare organizations since electronic health records proliferated in the industry in the 2000s. But the health IT counter-hacker corps has made big strides in combatting that adversary. And, besides, breaches don't usually hurt anyone directly. Ransomware disturbs patient care Not so with healthcare ransomware attacks. Patients' physiological health is at stake here -- even if patients are only collateral damage in cybercriminals' blackmail campaigns and there's no evidence of any concerted attack on a specific person. Apparently, no one has counted just how many patients had surgeries canceled or postponed after the WannaCry ransomware strikes took down at least 16 hospitals in the British public healthcare system in May 2017. One...
Features in this issue
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Connected medical device security, AI battle health hackers
More hacker threats, including via connected medical devices, are coming to healthcare organizations, but health IT professionals can look to AI and blockchain for possible help.
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Healthcare breaches drop, but ransomware attacks rise
Patient data breaches dropped in 2017, mainly due to fewer large-scale breaches, but ransomware strikes intensified and insiders kept hacking.
Columns in this issue
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New risk to cybersecurity in healthcare: Hacker as a service
Health IT and hospital security professionals must try to stay ahead of cyberattacks against electronic patient records. But now hackers are prepping the next generation.
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Healthcare ransomware attacks threaten patient safety
Worry about health IT cybersecurity has shifted from hacker-triggered health data breaches to ransomware and malware exploits that shut down hospitals and threaten patient safety.