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Cone Health practice loses data in ransomware attack
From: Destry Winant <destry () riskbasedsecurity com>
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2020 09:48:52 -0600
https://www.thetimesnews.com/story/news/2020/11/05/ransomware-attack-loses-data-cone-health-practice/6164713002/ The Alamance Skin Center needs patients to confirm their upcoming appointments after losing data in a ransomware attack, according to a Cone Health news release. Hackers did not get any patient data, Cone Health says, but the practice also could not retrieve information on patients, according to the release. The Skin Center’s medical records system is on a separate server from Cone Health’s main system, so the attack was isolated. The attack was in late July, and the hospital system determined its data were not retrievable Oct. 21. HIPAA laws require reporting breaches of private patient information, according to the release. Cone Health believes the attack was either phishing — emails sent to employees to trick them into opening files or links to malware — or “brute force” — sending many possible passwords until something works. Ransomware generally gets into a data system and threatens to destroy it unless a ransom is paid to the hackers. Attacks have been on the rise at least in part because the programs used in the attacks can be bought on the dark web, so it doesn't take a very sophisticated attacker to pull one off. Employee training and data backups are the defenses cyber security experts talk about the most. Patients of the Skin Center should get letters from Cone Health with information about how they can protect themselves and monitor their credit reports. _______________________________________________ BreachExchange mailing list sponsored by Risk Based Security BreachExchange () lists riskbasedsecurity com If you wish to Edit your membership or Unsubscribe you can do so at the following link: https://lists.riskbasedsecurity.com/listinfo/breachexchange
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- Cone Health practice loses data in ransomware attack Destry Winant (Nov 06)