Tag Archives: cyberattack

Resources for covering nationwide ransomware attacks on medical centers

Photo by Sora Shimazaki via pexels

Ransomware attacks continue to impact the daily operations of large and small hospitals nationwide. Journalists can find interesting story ideas by following the news or find local story angles by talking to hospitals affected by attacks or inquiring about measures medical centers are taking to prevent attacks.

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WSJ reporter digs deeper into global cyberattacks

Photo: Anoto AB via Flickr

Melanie Evans has been covering hospitals for many years, including for Modern Healthcare and now The Wall Street Journal. But she was not an expert on cybersecurity when the WannaCry ransomware cryptoworm began making its way through computer systems across the globe in May.

Evans eventually found a great and largely uncovered story about cyberattacks and the lack of public reporting disclosures at hospitals: “Why some of the worst cyberattacks in health care go unreported.” Continue reading

Style guide changes address language about addiction, gender

Photo: Sharyn Morrow via Flickr

The most recent edition of The Associated Press Stylebook – the premier guide for copy editors – has a number of updates that are important for health journalists to be aware of. Many of them are around the subject of drug and alcohol use and misuse, which many of my colleagues find themselves writing about quite a bit these days.

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Tips for covering cyberattacks on health care organizations

The cyberattack that hit British hospitals and hundreds of other organizations in more than 100 countries last week continues to unfold and has been called unprecedented in its scope.

For health care journalists, there are important questions to ask hospitals, other health care organizations – and even their own media organizations – about their level of preparedness and response plans for such an attack. Continue reading