Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

New FBI Advisory Warns of Hackers Targeting Healthcare

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and a number of its partners issued a joint advisory last week, highlighting cybercriminal activities by a ransomware group known as BianLian. With a history of attacking the healthcare sector, BianLian has targeted various other industries as well. The group gains system access using legitimate remote desktop protocol credentials then steals system-user credentials. The hackers then extort the target organizations by threatening to publicly release the stolen data. By using …

Legacy Medical Equipment Presents Security Liability

Even though Congress passed cybersecurity requirements for medical device manufacturers in 2023, some devices that are beyond their lifespan in terms of updates and support are likely vulnerable to attacks, according to MedTech Dive. Experts believe hospital systems still have plenty of unsupported legacy equipment in use, which may be overlooked because it’s still working well enough in everyday practice. It’s the lack of updates for the devices’ bespoke software that is most concerning because …

Providers Still Not Back to Normal After Change Cyberattack

Two months after the Change Healthcare cyberattack upended payments to a large percentage of the nation’s healthcare providers, organizations say they’re still suffering from the fallout, both financially and logistically, according to Kaiser Health News. Change parent company UnitedHealth Group indicated during a shareholder call on Tuesday, however, that business is largely back to normal, and its chief financial officer said that the company expects full operations to resume next year. The hacking has cost …

Supplier Hit By Cyber Attack

The distribution arm of medical supplier Henry Schein was shut down by a cyber attack on October 15. According to SecurityWeek, the company’s 1 million global customers could not place orders, and shipments were halted. The company said its practice management software was not impacted, however. Now what: Cyber attacks are increasing in frequency as well as the scale of their financial impact on healthcare organizations and their partners. “Have a secondary supplier to fall …

Guard Against ‘Ransomware’ Attacks by Checking Your Security Systems

An urgent care center in Oxford, MS had to tell some 58,000 patients their personal health and credit card information may have been compromised in a “ransomware” attack—after the operator also agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to the cyber pirates who carried out the act. Concerns started when computer systems started running dramatically slower without explanation. Soon after, the servers were completely taken over by parties beyond the clinic’s walls; control was not restored …