Can Hospitals Ever Really Be Prepared?
It’s happened again. On November 2, an unspecified “major” cyberincident forced three National Health Service (NHS) hospitals in the UK to shut down all planned operations and divert critically ill patients to other facilities for three days until their electronic systems could be restored. The shutdown affected 3,300 patients and came just as the UK detailed a national cyberstrategy designed to shore up security in critical national infrastructure such as hospitals. In response, the NHS placed all hospitals across the UK on high alert and suggested that Russia may have been behind the disruption.
As in previous incidents this year, the hackers’ tool of choice was likely ransomware, an increasingly popular form of attack that does not steal data but instead disables files and systems by encrypting them with a virtually unbreakable code. The hackers then demand a ransom payment to re-enable or unlock them. Indeed, 2016 has been called “the year of ransomware,” and a recent report by Intel Security finds the healthcare industry in the crosshairs, experiencing a reported 20 ransomware incidents per day, with hospitals having paid nearly $1,000,000 in ransom to specific Bitcoin accounts so far in 2016.
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Laura Jehl is a partner in the Business Trials Practice Group in Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP’s Washington, D.C. office. Ms. Jehl specializes in privacy, data security, “Big Data” and technology issues, and serves as co-leader of the firm’s Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice. She is also a co-leader of the firm’s Blockchain Technology and Digital Currency Practice.
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