Hackers are increasingly targeting the healthcare industry by locking up critical information until a ransom is paid.

MedStar Health Inc. based in Columbia, Maryland recently experienced this type of attack to several of its clinical IT systems. Hackers encrypted patient data and demanded a payment of $19,000 in bit coin currency in exchange for the digital key that would release the data.

This forced MedStar’s 10 hospitals and more than 250 outpatient centers to shut down their computers and email.  During the shutdown, patients were being turned away or treated without important computer records while MedStar worked to restore online systems crippled by the attack.

Without access to email and computer systems, medical staff were forced to rely on seldom-used paper records that had to be faxed or hand-delivered.  Often these records were missing vital patient information:  medical histories, drug prescriptions, allergies to medicine, and treatment plans.

Companies can prevent and mitigate malware infection by implementing appropriate backup and detection and prevention systems, and training employees to be more skeptical of emails, attachments, and websites they don’t recognize.

DataLink can assist with security planning and implementation to safeguard your organization’s IT resources from hackers. Contact us today at 410.729.0440 or sales@DataLinkTech.com.