Tag Archives: ransomware

Ransomware attacks on U.S. hospitals spike

Leave a reply

About Debra Gordon

Debra Gordon, M.S., is AHCJ’s health information technology topic leader. She has more than 30 years of experience in the health care world, including a decade as a newspaper reporter covering medicine, and 22 years as a freelance medical writer.

You’ve probably heard (or even written about) recent ransomware attacks on hospitals. The FBI warned hospitals several days ago of the likelihood of attacks with the Ryuk ransomware and, sure enough, numerous hospitals have been hit, forcing some to resort to paper, the last thing they need with COVID-19 cases again spiking. Others have shut down email.

The Russian hackers behind the attacks are asking for thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in the form of bitcoin and with, hospitals facing the third wave of the pandemic, they expect to get it. Continue reading →

WSJ reporter digs deeper into global cyberattacks

Leave a reply

About Rebecca Vesely

Rebecca Vesely is AHCJ's topic leader on health information technology and a freelance writer. She has written about health, science and medicine for AFP, the Bay Area News Group, Modern Healthcare, Wired, Scientific American online and many other news outlets.

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 →

Tips for covering cyberattacks on health care organizations

Leave a reply

About Rebecca Vesely

Rebecca Vesely is AHCJ's topic leader on health information technology and a freelance writer. She has written about health, science and medicine for AFP, the Bay Area News Group, Modern Healthcare, Wired, Scientific American online and many other news outlets.

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 →