Cybersecurity and World-Wide Ransomware

Ransomware: Not just a US issue

by Charles Parker, II

Ransomware is rampant through most industries for several reasons. One target industry chosen frequently is healthcare. As prevalent as it is encountered, there are likewise occurrences across the globe. This is not a US-centered issue.

In February of this year, at least 18 hospitals in Romania were successfully compromised with ransomware. This was targeted at their electronic medical records (EMR) and critical files databases. Without access to their patient records and files, the operations and patient care were cut down. The bad actors were able to affect between 10-20 TB of data.

This continues to emphasize the need for backups, proper security monitoring tools, incident response (IR) plans, and other tooling. When a compromise occurs, which it will, the staff needs to have the IR plan open and follow it as a natural course of business. This needs to be proctored with regular tabletop exercises (TTX) to make the following security guidelines standard