Medtronic suffered a cyberattack on its corporate IT systems. The incident highlights growing cybersecurity risks in the medtech sector, with cybergangs increasingly using phishing and other human-engineering tactics to gain access to data.

The post 6 Things to Know About Medtronic’s Cyberattack appeared first on MedCity News.

Stryker was hit by a cyberattack this week that knocked out its internal systems worldwide and caused delays to order processing and manufacturing. An Iran-linked group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the full impact remains unclear.

The post 6 Things to Know About Stryker’s Cyberattack appeared first on MedCity News.

There has been increased awareness of healthcare cybersecurity after last year’s massive Change Healthcare breach — but the sector remains dangerously vulnerable to cyberattacks. Experts warn that outdated systems, security staffing shortages and rushed tech adoption are leaving providers too exposed.

The post The Next Cyber Crisis Is Inevitable — and Healthcare Isn’t Ready appeared first on MedCity News.

Recognizing its vulnerability to cybercrime, the healthcare industry continues to prioritize cybersecurity. Here are some areas where organizations should be focusing their efforts.

The post Battling Ransomware: How Healthcare Organizations Can Strengthen Cybersecurity to Protect Patient Data appeared first on MedCity News.

The vast majority of healthcare organizations have spotted a cyberattack and suffered financial consequences as a result in the past 12 months, according to new research. A separate report also found that overall cyberattacks on healthcare organizations have risen by 32% year-over-year.

The post Cybersecurity Threats Continue to Rise for Healthcare Organizations, Research Shows appeared first on MedCity News.

Ascension’s May cyberattack compromised 5.6 million patients’ personal and health information, including Social Security numbers, credit card numbers and addresses. However, there is no evidence that any data was stolen from Acension’s EHR or other clinical systems, the health system said.

The post 5.6 Million Patients’ Data Stolen During Ascension’s Ransomware Attack Earlier This Year appeared first on MedCity News.

More than three-quarters of healthcare organizations reported paying more than $500,000 in ransom as a result of cyberattacks, according to a new report.

The post Most Healthcare Organizations Have Paid $500K or More in Ransom Post-Cyberattack, Report Says appeared first on MedCity News.

During a panel discussion at MedCity News’ INVEST Digital Health conference, three healthcare leaders shared their expert insight on what needs to change in order to improve the industry’s cybersecurity strategy.

The post What Will It Take to Improve Healthcare Cybersecurity? appeared first on MedCity News.

Healthcare organizations should work proactively with experts in the relevant domains to recognize and mitigate potential cybersecurity risks. Here’s what to do to mitigate risk.

The post Recognizing and Mitigating Cybersecurity Risks: Strategies for Healthcare Organizations appeared first on MedCity News.

Six months after Change Healthcare suffered its cyberattack, some health systems are still missing payments for patient encounters from February, according to a new report. It showed that small hospitals are still missing about 3-5% of expected net revenue for patient encounters from February.

The post Health Systems Are Still Missing Payments Because of the Change Healthcare Cyberattack appeared first on MedCity News.

Last week, McLaren Health Care fell victim to its second major cyberattack in less than a year. The Michigan-based health system has been working to restore its IT and phone systems over the past week, but some of these systems still remain down.

The post 4 Things to Know About the McLaren Cyberattack & Its Aftermath appeared first on MedCity News.

While hospitals have contingency plans for events like power outages and extreme weather — backup generators, secondary chillers, and fiber for internet coverage — they can typically neglect vulnerabilities in the revenue cycle. Here are five proactive measures for hospitals and revenue cycle management/clearing house partners.

The post Preserving Profitability: Why Financial Redundancy Is Vital in Healthcare appeared first on MedCity News.

The National Community Pharmacists Association and providers argued that Change Healthcare didn’t take the needed precautions against the cyberattack that happened earlier this year.

The post NCPA, Providers File Lawsuit Against UHG Over Change Healthcare Cyberattack appeared first on MedCity News.

Ransomware group Black Basta has quickly gained prominence as one of the biggest threats to healthcare providers’ cybersecurity. The group, which is responsible for the Ascension cyberattack, has hit more than 500 organizations across the globe since it first appeared in April 2022.

The post 3 Things to Know About the Cybergang That Attacked Ascension appeared first on MedCity News.

Cybersecurity experts are recommending some changes to improve the healthcare industry’s defense posture — such as the introduction of government-enforced minimum cybersecurity standards for providers and greater collaboration between healthcare organizations.

The post These 3 Things Must Change for Hospital Cybersecurity to Improve appeared first on MedCity News.

As majorly disruptive cyberattacks continue to make headlines in the healthcare world, hospitals are prioritizing cybersecurity more than ever before. This piece explores reactions from five different health system executives about the recent attack on Ascension — as well as what they’re doing to prevent a similar fate at their own organization and how they want things to change going forward.

The post Why the Cyberattack on Ascension Scared 5 Hospital Execs & How They’re Responding appeared first on MedCity News.

During a fireside chat at MedCity News’ INVEST conference, Nitin Natarajan — deputy director at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) — shared some key ideas that people need to understand about the current state of cybersecurity in the healthcare industry. For instance, he reminded us that things won’t get better overnight, and that cybersecurity requires an all-hands-on deck approach.

The post 5 Things to Know About the Sorry State of Healthcare Cybersecurity appeared first on MedCity News.

On Wednesday, Ascension noticed that a hacker had infiltrated its systems. As the health system works with Mandiant to investigate the incident, clinical services remain disrupted at Ascension facilities across several states.

The post Ascension Hospitals Across Several States Are Offline Following Cyberattack appeared first on MedCity News.

Healthcare industry leaders think there is much to learn from the Change Healthcare cyberattack, and they hope the sector can apply these lessons to prevent a hack like this from ever happening again. Overall, the chaotic aftermath of the attack underscores the dire need for a more unified approach to cybersecurity within the healthcare sector.

The post 4 Lessons We Learned From The Change Healthcare Cyberattack appeared first on MedCity News.

After a healthcare cyberattack, the impacted organization often doesn’t want to divulge a lot of information, Intermountain Health CISO Erik Decker said last week at HIMSS. However, he thinks healthcare organizations should be more transparent with their peers after an attack because “no one system operates independent of everybody else.”

The post Intermountain Health CISO: The Industry Needs Better Transparency After Cyberattacks appeared first on MedCity News.

The aftermath the cyberattack on Change Healthcare remains messy, with patients across the country still struggling to obtain their prescriptions. The federal government has even stepped in to help address the fallout of the attack, urging payers to quickly alleviate the digital bottlenecks that providers and pharmacies are facing.

The post Answering 7 Key Questions About Change Healthcare’s Cyberattack appeared first on MedCity News.

Pharmacies across the country are facing disruptions following a cyberattack on Change Healthcare — which is owned by Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group. In a filing with the SEC, UnitedHealth stated that the unauthorized party that gained access to Change Healthcare’s systems was a “suspected nation-state associated cyber security threat actor.”

The post ‘Nation-State’ Cyberattack Hits Change Healthcare, Disrupting Pharmacy Services Across the Country appeared first on MedCity News.

HHS issued an alert warning providers about Rhysida, a ransomware gang that recently begun launching attacks on healthcare organizations. The group deploys its ransomware primarily through phishing attacks or the exploitation of legitimate cybersecurity tools.

The post HHS Warns Providers About a New Cybercriminal Gang Attacking the Healthcare Sector appeared first on MedCity News.

Hospitals and outpatient treatment centers in at least three states are struggling to get their systems back online following a ransomware attack waged last week against parent company Prospect Medical Holdings. Some of these facilities have partially or completely halted patient care.

The post Hospitals Still Struggling to Get Back Online 4 Days After Cyberattack on Prospect Medical Holdings appeared first on MedCity News.

HC3 recently warned healthcare providers about a “relatively unknown” ransomware gang named TimisoaraHackerTeam. The group leverages legitimate software tools like Microsoft’s BitLocker and Jetico’s BestCrypt to deliver its malware.

The post Feds Warn Healthcare Providers About ‘Obscure’ Ransomware Gang appeared first on MedCity News.

As companies review their processes, below are three approaches they can keep top of mind — namely, increasing employee training and utilizing technology as safeguards, making a point to learn and change processes following attacks, and prioritizing vetting partners’ security.

The post 3 Keys to Better Cybersecurity appeared first on MedCity News.

Russian hacker group Killnet has claimed responsibility for a string of recent cyberattacks that took more than a dozen hospital websites offline across the U.S. — including the websites for Cedars-Sinai, Michigan Medicine, and UPMC. The group has been active for at least a year and is known to target countries that support and/or send resources to Ukraine.

The post Russian Hackers Take Down At Least 17 U.S. Health System Websites appeared first on MedCity News.

A new report that showed a sharp increase in cybersecurity attacks in 2021 urged organizations to consider when, not if, they too will be under attack. Attacks are becoming more sophisticated and socially engineered making them harder to detect.

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The 2021 HIMSS Healthcare Cybersecurity Survey found heathcare cyber attacks most frequently targeted financial information; aging infrastructures and tight budgets contributed to security challenges.

The post Report identifies phishing, ransomware attacks as most significant security incidents for healthcare appeared first on MedCity News.

There is a lot of discussion on how ransomware costs healthcare billions of dollars and not enough discussion on how it impacts the patient’s safety.

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