Andrew James reports on a ransomware attack on a South Carolina system that has yet to show up on HHS’s public breach tool:
The impacts of the December 12 cyberattack on the Tidelands Health Hospital System are unclear, but what is clear is that patients feel they were victimized as a result of negligence.
A class-action lawsuit was filed in federal court this week holding the hospital system liable for the attack and the treatment of patients thereafter.
The lawsuit calls the attack an act of ransomware that disrupted the operations of Tidelands Health, blocking the systems and data and included the disclosure of “highly sensitive” patient medical records of thousands of patients.
Read more on ABC15. There are some useful examples of what can go wrong or the risks of a ransomware attack. But those are true for pretty much all hospitals or health systems when they try to continue to stay open but cannot access patients’ medical records.
While there are always lessons to be learned, maybe one lesson we should have learned by now is to keep a list of our allergies — to foods, medications, etc…. so that in the event we need emergency care, there is a list that providers can access. And if your allergy is at the level of life-threatening, perhaps you should consider wearing a medic alert bracelet or necklace.