Healthcare Data Breach Toolkit for Victims & Providers

By The EZShield Team in Business Protection 0 Comment
Healthcare Data Breach Toolkit

It seems like almost every day a new healthcare agency, facility, or network is reporting a data breach.

A lot of it may have to do with the fact that many healthcare organizations have outdated IT systems and lack focus and investment in cybersecurity tools. There’s also employee error, which can inadvertently open up the flood gates to hackers. All of this, combined with the treasure trove of Personally Identifiable Information (PII), known in the industry as Protected or “Personal” Health Information (PHI), on their networks, makes healthcare providers an appealing target. In addition, a successful breach can generate millions of dollars for cybercriminals on the Dark Web. Continue reading

Healthcare Data Breaches and Cyber Attacks During COVID-19 Put Your Medical Identity at Risk

By Donna Parent in Personal Protection 0 Comment
Healthcare Data on Laptop and Folder

Cybersecurity concerns surrounding healthcare organizations and hospitals have been brewing at the same time the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread around the world. In fact, warnings from the FBI and Interpol indicate that hospitals are a target for a wide-range of cyber-attacks, from having medical records exposed to attacks that may involve ransomware — software built as a decoy to lock down a computer system until the ransom is paid. This happened on May 5th, 2020, when a reported ransomware attack on the Fresenius Group, a global healthcare company and one of the largest dialysis equipment providers in the U.S., impacted the company’s operations around the world. These attacks can not only cripple healthcare and hospital operations, but hackers and scammers can also put sensitive personal medical information at high risk of fraud. Continue reading

Hackers Lock MedStar Health Out Of Their Own Network

By John Burcham in Breach and Scam News 0 Comment
MedStar Health Ransomware

Update 04/04/2016: The Baltimore Sun reports MedStar Health has restored 90 percent of their impacted computer systems. Hospital officials said MedStar did not pay a ransom to retrieve any files. Patient data was not exposed during the attack.

What happened? 

On March 28, MedStar Health, the largest healthcare provider in Maryland and Washington, D.C., disclosed an attack on their computer systems and encrypted medical records. The hacker used ransomware, a form of malware that locks computer access until a specified ransom is paid. Continue reading