OK, I’m having trouble believing a report I just read.
Let’s start with the report that was understandable. On January 16, Tyler Carter reported:
PASCAGOULA, Miss. — Singing River Health System’s computer systems were targeted overnight in an attempt to pilfer information from the hospital, according to Chief Operating Officer Lee Bond.
The attempted cyber-attack triggered security protocols to protect the system’s data, thwarting attempts by hackers to break into their computers.
“Late last night our Information Systems Team detected an attempted attack and immediately activated our security protocols,” Chief Operating Officer Lee Bond said. “Out of an abundance of caution we shut down our networks entirely so that we could isolate the problem and reboot our system. We are still evaluating what occurred but have detected no compromises of Protected Health Information or patient data in this attempt.”
Ok, that was a pretty clear statement by Bond, and it sounds like there is no confirmation of any breach of PHI, which is great.
But then today I saw a headline that Singing River had been hacked by TheDarkOverlord. DistilNFO HITRUST reports:
Singing River Health System of Mississippi suffered a data breach when a cyber-attacker allegedly hacked exposing an unknown number of patients’ data.
The report continues, but nowhere do I see any mention of TheDarkOverlord in Singing River’s statement that they quote. Nor do I see any statement that suggests that patient data was actually exposed.
Where is DistilNFO HITRUST getting that all from??
So of course, I sent them a message, asking them if they know something I don’t:
Where is there any evidence that TheDarkOverlord was the hacker in the Singing River Health attempted hack? Where are you getting that from? Singing River’s statement doesn’t mention those hackers at all.
I’ll let you know if I get a response. Or maybe TDO will contact me directly to let me know whether they were the hackers or not in that incident. For now, I’m not viewing it as one of theirs until I get some confirmation. In fact, I’m still viewing this one as a near-miss and not a breach of PHI.
“We are still evaluating what occurred but have detected no compromises of Protected Health Information (PHI) or patient data in this attempt.”
That is exactly the statement I would expect when audit logs are not available.
Some history from SRHS, 3-4 unscheduled downtime events in the last 3 years that were not reported (at least one over 48 hours). Knowing how the IT department functions there, I would find much of what was reported is a cover up for poorly managed security systems, server patches outdates, no asset inventory tracking (missing laptops), etc. Don’t believe what is reported to the public.
OK, those are your suspicions. If you have any evidence that they’ve actually had a breach involving PHI, I’d like to know and hope you get in touch.