California hospital paid $17,000 ransom in bitcoins to hackers (link to article)

[wj4]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...a-hospital-ransom-hackers-20160217-story.html


Some info on Bitcoin: http://money.cnn.com/infographic/technology/what-is-bitcoin/



I rarely post any new threads nowadays, but I heard about this on the news today. I work in risk management so this is always a concern. The Bitcoin factor is also interesting.

It will be intriguing to see how agencies and even organizations will handle situations like this going forward. Hospitals are notorious for running simulations for emergencies to practice for the real deal IE in case they have to operate while the systems are down; how to relay protected health info (PHI) and release drug, etc. I'm sure other healthcare firms are buzzing about this at the moment.

 

[nawghtyhare]

Hmmm
Woulda been dope if they also threw giving everyone in the hospital free treatment in the ransom demands

 

[suprduperfly]

The new stick-up kid.

I wonder if any company will make the initiative to go off- the- grid among all these tech scandals. They would have to be in the right field/ business.

We depend to much on technology for things we shouldn't.

 

[4318michaeljohnson4318]

I wonder if the previous cyber security thread will spill into this one

 

[nazdrowie]

what it is about health records that make them such a privacy hot topic?

what do records usually contain other than medically-pertinent information (diseases, medications, medical histories)? 

can someone explain to me how someone would use this for nefarious purposes?

 

[pdino]

 
what it is about health records that make them such a privacy hot topic?

what do records usually contain other than medically-pertinent information (diseases, medications, medical histories)? 

can someone explain to me how someone would use this for nefarious purposes?

It's all information, SS#, address, insurance #s, hospitals have pretty much everything on you.

 

[eiddyfouw]

what it is about health records that make them such a privacy hot topic?

what do records usually contain other than medically-pertinent information (diseases, medications, medical histories)? 

can someone explain to me how someone would use this for nefarious purposes?

First thought that comes to mind.

Health status' can affect someones employment or business situation.

If someone wants their status private that's their prerogative. Once word gets out, that can affect their situation negatively.

 

[Belgium]

 
what it is about health records that make them such a privacy hot topic?

what do records usually contain other than medically-pertinent information (diseases, medications, medical histories)? 

can someone explain to me how someone would use this for nefarious purposes?

Social security number, address, age, ... Just about everything. I recently asked for a full copy of my entire medical file and I was surprised at the amount of information they have. Almost everything you can think of.

That data can easily be used to do much more harm. 

 

[nawghtyhare]

what it is about health records that make them such a privacy hot topic?

what do records usually contain other than medically-pertinent information (diseases, medications, medical histories)? 

can someone explain to me how someone would use this for nefarious purposes?

I think it's more along the lines of
Ur business ain't everyone's business

 

[mkc1983]

Social security number, address, age, ... Just about everything. I recently asked for a full copy of my entire medical file and I was surprised at the amount of information they have. Almost everything you can think of.
That data can easily be used to do much more harm. 

Makes it easy for identity theft and fraud right?

 

[spizike231]

Since I work for a Medical company, I work with information like what you guys are talking about daily.

Patient Health Information (PHI) is extremely protected, both by the companies that have them and even by the law. If you didn't know this, check on HIPAA.

To give you an idea of how important it is to these companies / our patients, a story told to me at training was that one time a paper with PHI was thrown in the garbage and not shredded like it should have been. The company found out, had to tell the patient about this, and had to go to the dump site that they were told it was at by the garbage company and sift through piles of garbage for hours until they found the paper they were looking for.

Trust me when I say that the possibility of leaked PHI is very important to health companies, and we take it very serious. You can not only lose your job, but you can also get you and your company into a large amount of legal issues if you mis-handle the PHI you're working with.

EDIT: after reading the article I can completely understand why they paid the money and called it a day. If the information they have on file for their patients got taken / used wrongfully, that hospital and company would be gone in a matter of a week or two.

 

[yeah]

The new stick-up kid.

I wonder if any company will make the initiative to go off- the- grid among all these tech scandals. They would have to be in the right field/ business.

We depend to much on technology for things we shouldn't.

For a lot of modern hospitals and treatment facilities, going off the grid simply isn't possible. There's not really a concrete way of preventing it from happening, either. The only thing agencies can do is invest in training for their employees.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevemo...ed-to-reach-170-billion-by-2020/#580764502191

I wonder if the previous cyber security thread will spill into this one

I'm sorry. As long as someone doesn't make any factually incorrect statements or comparisons, I think we'll be fine.

 

[Master Zik]

These hacker ransoms, especially for bit coins happen way more than you guys might think.

Took me a while to realize most ppl in those spots changing cash to bit coins are doing it to pay a ransom

A whole hospital though. Messed up.

what it is about health records that make them such a privacy hot topic?

what do records usually contain other than medically-pertinent information (diseases, medications, medical histories)? 

can someone explain to me how someone would use this for nefarious purposes?

Just from the medical stuff, you can expose every treatment, disease/virus a person ever had. Probably even consultations for other things. Imagine that for a sec. You may think so what I had chlamydia that one time but other ppl aint that carefree.

There are ppl you might not expect to be on anti-depressants or even more hard stuff that'd make you look at them differently that leads to the person being treated differently and that get negatively effect personal and professional life.

End of the day it's the law so the hospital letting that happened would be liable for all kinds of lawsuits.

 

[Belgium]

Makes it easy for identity theft and fraud right?

Correct.

 

[jthagreat]

I also read that hospital stuff is stolen because its tied to insurance companies.

The hackers can essentially bill patient's insurance companies for all kinds of services they didn't get, and having the insurance companies send them legit checks.

It would be like printing money.