Yesterday, South Africa’s National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) confirmed it is experiencing a ransomware attack that is affecting the dissemination of lab results amidst a monkeypox outbreak.
Saturday morning, hackers deleted sections of NHLS’s systems and backup servers, “rendering them inaccessible and blocking communication” from databases to and from users.
All the 265 laboratories the NHLS runs are still functional and continue to receive and process clinical samples, but lab reports are not automatically generated and sent to clinicians forcing more urgent test results to be communicated to doctors over the phone or printed and mailed.
The ransomware attack has caused concern in South Africa given the outbreak of monkeypox. As of Tuesday, three deaths and 16 laboratory-confirmed cases have been found.
Officials do not know when the systems will be restored.
Cigent CGO Brett Hansen had this to say:
“No one is immune from attack. The days of healthcare and children being off limits to attacks are over. Organizations need to be proactively protecting their data vs detect and respond. This requires embracing zero-trust access controls that assume device or credential compromise. Utilizing step-up authentication, a low-friction requirement that controls endpoint data access can prevent ransomware or other malware from accessing files even when the device has been compromised. Protected endpoint data can still be accessed during an attack, allowing continued operation through the crisis.”
This is yet another example of heathcare being a target of threat actors. While I never try to blame the victim so to speak, healthcare needs to do a better job of protecting themselves from threat actors. Some of that comes from better funding, and some of that comes from just putting in the work. Otherwise this will keep repeating itself.
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This entry was posted on June 26, 2024 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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South Africa’s health lab down after ransomware attack
Yesterday, South Africa’s National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) confirmed it is experiencing a ransomware attack that is affecting the dissemination of lab results amidst a monkeypox outbreak.
Saturday morning, hackers deleted sections of NHLS’s systems and backup servers, “rendering them inaccessible and blocking communication” from databases to and from users.
All the 265 laboratories the NHLS runs are still functional and continue to receive and process clinical samples, but lab reports are not automatically generated and sent to clinicians forcing more urgent test results to be communicated to doctors over the phone or printed and mailed.
The ransomware attack has caused concern in South Africa given the outbreak of monkeypox. As of Tuesday, three deaths and 16 laboratory-confirmed cases have been found.
Officials do not know when the systems will be restored.
Cigent CGO Brett Hansen had this to say:
“No one is immune from attack. The days of healthcare and children being off limits to attacks are over. Organizations need to be proactively protecting their data vs detect and respond. This requires embracing zero-trust access controls that assume device or credential compromise. Utilizing step-up authentication, a low-friction requirement that controls endpoint data access can prevent ransomware or other malware from accessing files even when the device has been compromised. Protected endpoint data can still be accessed during an attack, allowing continued operation through the crisis.”
This is yet another example of heathcare being a target of threat actors. While I never try to blame the victim so to speak, healthcare needs to do a better job of protecting themselves from threat actors. Some of that comes from better funding, and some of that comes from just putting in the work. Otherwise this will keep repeating itself.
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This entry was posted on June 26, 2024 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.