Technology.

Cyber-attack in Health Care Organizations
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Cyber-attack in Health Care Organizations
In 2016, healthcare was the 5th targeted industry by cyber-attacks worldwide (O’dowd, 2017). According to Fuentes (2017), more than 16 patients’ records were stolen from health care institutions in America through cyber-attacks. Britain NHS experienced one of the greatest cyber-attacks in history. The paper describes the type of attack, duration, its effects and measures which were put in place for future protection.
In May 2017, NHS was attacked by a ransomware called WannaCry -also called WannaCry0r 2.0 (Parliament.uk., 2018). The ransomware was spread via emails in which the recipients would open and a malware released into the computer system. Once the malware spread into the entire system, it locked up files with an encryption that the user was not able to access. The malware then demanded payments in bitcoins for it to allow access back into the system. The attack took a few days as the attacker demanded more ransom WannaCry0r 2.0 attack hit about 16 health care institutions in Britain. The malware stole some health records within these institutions and others like health reports and records deleted. The remaining data that survived was scrambled. The hospital staffs within the affected institutions were forced to use hand writing as a means of recording information. Patients were forcefully be turned away (by cancelling appointments) or kept in waiting for the period of the attack and post attack.

After the system was cleaned, to protect against future malware attacks, Microsoft released a patch to fix it later that year. Hospitals were urged to always ensure they install patch updates whenever they came. An anti-virus was also released for the prevention of future attacks. Hospitals were urged to train their staff on cyber protection and safety. 

References
Parliament.uk. (2018). Cyber-attack on the NHS. Parliament.uk. Retrieved on December 2018 from https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmpubacc/787/787.pdf
Fuentes, M. R. (2017). Cybercrime and Other Threats Faced by the Healthcare Industry. Trend Micro.
O’dowd, A. (2017). Major global cyber-attack hits NHS and delays treatment. BMJ: British Medical Journal (Online), 357.