Hack of Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Southern California had its systems hacked and held for ransom causing the hospital to declare an internal emergency last Friday and has to transport patients to other facilities. The computers are essential for documentation of patient care, transmittal of lab work, sharing of X-rays and CT scans. The FBI and the LAPD have been called in to investigate. Tim Erlin, director of IT security and risk strategy at Tripwire have the following comments on it.

[su_note note_color=”#ffffcc” text_color=”#00000″]Tim Erlin, Director of Security and Product Management at Tripwire :

“We’re talking about cyber safety, not just cyber security. The average consumer may not realize how vitally important effective electronic communication is for a hospital. Disruption of that communication slows treatment, and creates real risk to human life.

An attacker can significantly impact a hospital’s ability to deliver care without directly attacking medical devices themselves.

Hospitals should include these kinds of cyber attacks in their disaster recovery plans. Systems may be taken off line maliciously, or by other circumstances. It’s important to have procedures in place to protect patients in either case.”[/su_note]

[su_box title=”About Tripwire” style=”noise” box_color=”#336588″]Tripwire is a leading provider of advanced threat, security and compliance solutions that enable enterprises, service providers and government agencies to confidently detect, prevent and respond to cybersecurity threats. Tripwire solutions are based on high-fidelity asset visibility and deep endpoint intelligence combined with business-context and enable security automation through enterprise integration. Tripwire’s portfolio of enterprise-class security solutions includes configuration and policy management, file integrity monitoring, vulnerability management and log intelligence.[/su_box]