ATTENTION ALL STAFF: This important notice was sent out by UMMS on Thursday, February 18.
This week it was announced that a hospital in California had been the victim of a “ransomware” cyber attack in which their core IT systems were completely shut down for over a week, causing them to run on downtime procedures during that time.
This attack was likely the result of a person within the hospital receiving a suspicious email and clicking on a web link within that message, or visiting a malicious website from a hospital computer.
The website on that link downloaded malicious software onto the person’s computer, which then attacked the hospital’s core IT systems and encrypted them causing the shutdown.
The malicious software included a message demanding a large ransom payment in return for the password to decrypt the disabled IT systems and restore service.
After over a week of partnering with the FBI and attempting to unlock the disabled IT systems, the hospital paid the ransom. This decision will likely increase the attractiveness of hospitals to similar attackers, and we can expect to be the target of similar threats.
Please take the following steps to help protect our IT systems and the patients who depend on them:
1.) Be on the alert for suspicious emails and websites, even if they appear to be legitimate…do not click on links unless you are absolutely certain that the sender is authentic and the message is business-related.
2.) Forward any suspicious emails you receive to the ITS Security Team at this address: its-securityteam@umm.edu. Also, delete them from both your Inbox and Trash folders.
3.) Share this information with your co-workers … ransomware attacks are a growing threat and can strike home computers as well as business and clinical systems.
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