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Lessons From A Security Breach

Posted on September 27, 2010 by Dissent

Ed Sperling writes:

In late July Kern Medical Center’s information system came to a grinding halt.

The hospital believed it had the standard security systems in place to protect its medical records. But for 16 long days that stretched into August, the hospital struggled to get its systems operational and isolate the problem from its patient care.

Forbes caught up with Bill Fawns, CIO of Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, Calif., to talk about what happened and what to do when a cyber attack does occur.

Read the interview on Forbes. It’s a good example of the realities that hospitals must deal with and how things can go very very wrong.

As an aside, Fawns refers to a breach at another hospital that I don’t remember. Here’s his description:

At another hospital, someone broke into the system, then walked down the hallway and slipped a note under the CEO’s door. He said, “Here’s my Cayman Island bank account and put money in or I’ll release your records.”

Does anyone recall what hospital that was?

Cross-posted from PHIprivacy.net

Category: Commentaries and AnalysesHealth DataMalware

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