Ransomware forces hospital to turn away ambulances
(2024/10/01)
- Reference: 1727734578
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/09/30/texan_hospital_ransomware/
- Source link:
Ransomware scumbags have caused a vital hospital to turn away ambulances after infecting its computer systems with malware.
The University Medical Center in Lubbock, west Texas, has been [1]forced to severely limit operations following the cyberattack. The non-profit hospital was hit on Friday by ransomware operators. Services are [2]still being disrupted, although most emergency care facilities are operating at present.
"Out of an abundance of caution, we will continue to temporarily divert incoming emergency and non-emergency patients via ambulance to nearby health facilities until this issue is resolved," the US hospital said in a [3]statement .
[4]
"We are making accommodations wherever possible to minimize any disruption to our patients and our critical services. Our investigation into this incident remains ongoing and will take time to complete."
[5]
[6]
UMC is a level-one trauma hospital - meaning it's capable of handling the most seriously ill patients and maintains a team of specialists around the clock. The center is the only such hospital in nearly 400 miles and any degradation to its service could be life threatening.
The hospital said it noticed unusual activity on one of its IT networks and disconnected it from the main computer system. It has called in an unspecified third party to help fix the situation. A hospital spokesperson declined to comment further.
[7]Ransomware gang using stolen Microsoft Entra ID creds to bust into the cloud
[8]FBI boss says China 'burned down' 260,000-device botnet when confronted by Feds
[9]CISA boss: Makers of insecure software must stop enabling today's cyber villains
[10]Valencia Ransomware explodes on the scene, claims California city, fashion giant, more as victims
Hopefully the center is working with the FBI, which not only can sometimes help recover ransomware-scrambled systems, but will even help beat down the criminals on price if the victim decides to pay up, as FBI director Christopher Wray [11]explained earlier this month.
According to Sophos, while the total number of ransomware attacks is falling slowly overall, when it comes to healthcare, they are rising. In the past two years, two-thirds of healthcare facilities surveyed by the infosec shop suffered at least one ransomware infection and over half had paid criminals to regain control of their networks.
[12]
"While we’ve seen the rate of ransomware attacks reach a kind of 'homeostasis' or even declining across industries, attacks against healthcare organizations continue to intensify, both in number and scope," [13]said Sophos field CTO John Shier.
"The highly sensitive nature of healthcare information and need for accessibility will always place a bullseye on the healthcare industry from cybercriminals. Unfortunately, cybercriminals have learned that few healthcare organizations are prepared to respond to these attacks, demonstrated by increasingly longer recovery times. These attacks can have immense ripple effects." ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.kcbd.com/2024/09/28/cyber-security-expert-calls-ransomware-attack-umc-national-security-issue/
[2] https://www.lubbockonline.com/story/news/local/2024/09/29/umc-emergency-room-hospital-in-lubbock-still-impacted-by-ransomware-attack-it-outage/75429367007/
[3] https://www.umchealthsystem.com/it-outage/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zvtz5pdnNFiKilPfb6dcbQAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zvtz5pdnNFiKilPfb6dcbQAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zvtz5pdnNFiKilPfb6dcbQAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/27/microsoft_storm_0501/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/18/fbi_flax_typhoon_ransomware/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/cisa_software_cybercrime_villains/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/19/valencia_ransomware_california_city/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/18/fbi_flax_typhoon_ransomware/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zvtz5pdnNFiKilPfb6dcbQAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.sophos.com/en-us/press/press-releases/2024/09/two-thirds-healthcare-organizations-hit-ransomware-four-year-high
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The University Medical Center in Lubbock, west Texas, has been [1]forced to severely limit operations following the cyberattack. The non-profit hospital was hit on Friday by ransomware operators. Services are [2]still being disrupted, although most emergency care facilities are operating at present.
"Out of an abundance of caution, we will continue to temporarily divert incoming emergency and non-emergency patients via ambulance to nearby health facilities until this issue is resolved," the US hospital said in a [3]statement .
[4]
"We are making accommodations wherever possible to minimize any disruption to our patients and our critical services. Our investigation into this incident remains ongoing and will take time to complete."
[5]
[6]
UMC is a level-one trauma hospital - meaning it's capable of handling the most seriously ill patients and maintains a team of specialists around the clock. The center is the only such hospital in nearly 400 miles and any degradation to its service could be life threatening.
The hospital said it noticed unusual activity on one of its IT networks and disconnected it from the main computer system. It has called in an unspecified third party to help fix the situation. A hospital spokesperson declined to comment further.
[7]Ransomware gang using stolen Microsoft Entra ID creds to bust into the cloud
[8]FBI boss says China 'burned down' 260,000-device botnet when confronted by Feds
[9]CISA boss: Makers of insecure software must stop enabling today's cyber villains
[10]Valencia Ransomware explodes on the scene, claims California city, fashion giant, more as victims
Hopefully the center is working with the FBI, which not only can sometimes help recover ransomware-scrambled systems, but will even help beat down the criminals on price if the victim decides to pay up, as FBI director Christopher Wray [11]explained earlier this month.
According to Sophos, while the total number of ransomware attacks is falling slowly overall, when it comes to healthcare, they are rising. In the past two years, two-thirds of healthcare facilities surveyed by the infosec shop suffered at least one ransomware infection and over half had paid criminals to regain control of their networks.
[12]
"While we’ve seen the rate of ransomware attacks reach a kind of 'homeostasis' or even declining across industries, attacks against healthcare organizations continue to intensify, both in number and scope," [13]said Sophos field CTO John Shier.
"The highly sensitive nature of healthcare information and need for accessibility will always place a bullseye on the healthcare industry from cybercriminals. Unfortunately, cybercriminals have learned that few healthcare organizations are prepared to respond to these attacks, demonstrated by increasingly longer recovery times. These attacks can have immense ripple effects." ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.kcbd.com/2024/09/28/cyber-security-expert-calls-ransomware-attack-umc-national-security-issue/
[2] https://www.lubbockonline.com/story/news/local/2024/09/29/umc-emergency-room-hospital-in-lubbock-still-impacted-by-ransomware-attack-it-outage/75429367007/
[3] https://www.umchealthsystem.com/it-outage/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zvtz5pdnNFiKilPfb6dcbQAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zvtz5pdnNFiKilPfb6dcbQAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zvtz5pdnNFiKilPfb6dcbQAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/27/microsoft_storm_0501/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/18/fbi_flax_typhoon_ransomware/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/cisa_software_cybercrime_villains/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/19/valencia_ransomware_california_city/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/18/fbi_flax_typhoon_ransomware/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cybercrime&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zvtz5pdnNFiKilPfb6dcbQAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.sophos.com/en-us/press/press-releases/2024/09/two-thirds-healthcare-organizations-hit-ransomware-four-year-high
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Anonymous Coward
I'm more alarmed by the fact that the hospital refused patients just because it couldn't update it's computer overlord before intaking someone. This kind of crap is supposed to be the impossibly post-dystopian themes we make fun of in sci-fi horror movies as a bad trope, not something we're actually living through. A goddamn database shouldn't get in between someone and getting critical medical attention.
IceC0ld
sadly, it isn't just the intake of the patient that is impacted, the patient requires a bed, meds, treatment, from staff, all of whom have to be 'nominated' and assigned to that task, to the outside eyes, it is 'just' accepting the patient, and I would hope in extremis, the hospital would revert to pen and paper, but for the day to day stuff, EVERYTHING goes into the system, and in US there are costs to be kept up with too :o(
in UK, although free at point of contact with patient, we still need to account for everything associated to the patients needs
did around 7 years support to the major hospitals in my region, we never had to go through this, but the D/B was a beast, glad to say not my responsibility, but the DB Admins earned their pay :o)
Ransomware forces hospital to turn away ambulances
Yet Another Anonymous coward
Their credit card machine was down and nobody knew how to work the old carbon-paper swipe gadget
Causation Vs correlation?
"two-thirds of healthcare facilities surveyed by the infosec shop suffered at least one ransomware infection and over half had paid criminals to regain control of their networks."
Now, I may be jumping to conclusions, but could the reason healthcare is being targeted, because of the 50% payout?
Seem like pretty juicy targets if I was that way inclined.