Yesterday there were news reports of a cyberattack against hospital computer systems in several states. Here’s a CBS report: Cyberattack causes multiple hospitals to shut emergency rooms and divert ambulances.
That CBS article mentions cyberattacks in CA, PA, RI, CT. An article at The Verge, The FBI is investigating a multiple-state hospital ransomware attack, embedded links in their article to other news reports on this cyberattack.
So, the important things to be aware of are ransomware attacks can cause chaos and delays in medical care, but also these types of cyberattacks aren’t resolved in hours or even days sometimes, but can take weeks. When the phones and computer systems are down for days or weeks, it creates endless problems for medical personnel and patients.
My primary care doctor’s medical group experienced some sort of cyberattack issue towards the end of June. On June 22nd I received a text msg. that their phones were temporarily offline and then another text msg. on July 12th, that the phones had been restored. I had two issues that required medical attention during that period and my doctor’s phone number was answered by an answering service, where the person told me that I would need to go into the office to make an appointment. I did go into the doctor’s office to schedule an appointment – both times. I needed to see my doctor. Aside from the text messages, I don’t know any actual details other than someone in the office told me they shut down the computer system out of concerns of a breach. A disgruntled person also notified a local newspaper, who ran a short piece about the phones and computers being down for that medical group, but there was no additional information.
I am concerned about the NYT report last weekend about Chinese malware buried in US computer systems, but there’s been no information that I’ve seen attributing these ransomware attacks against medical systems to China. I don’t want to make that leap of blaming China, because I haven’t seen any reports stating that.
In just the past couple months, I’ve experienced this cyberattack situation with my own primary care doctor. My power went out during a thunderstorm for several hours recently and that’s happened many times over the years. Last month, my water pressure was very low one morning and only a trickle came out of the faucet. Hours later the water pressure was back to normal, but my local water department issued a “boil water” advisory until they completed testing of the water. I got COVID and was sick a few weeks ago, so having plenty of food and medical supplies came in handy. I’m still encountering items at the store that are out-of-stock at times (often for a few days, but sometimes longer). Granted, so far these are minor inconveniences in my life, but each incident reinforces my belief that working on emergency preparedness matters a great deal. And, yep, I’m going to continue to beat the emergency preparedness drum, even if it often feels like very few people take this seriously..
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