Officials at a medical practice in Blue Springs say they are taking steps to strengthen privacy protections after a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom affected nearly 45,000 patients . Blue Springs Family Care discovered in May that hackers had installed malware and ransomware encryption programs on its computer system , giving them full access Attack.Databreach to patient records . Ransomware is a kind of malware that locks up a computer . The attackers typically demand a ransom Attack.Ransom , often in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies , as a condition of unlocking the computer and allowing access to the system . Melanie Peterson , Blue Springs Family Care ’ s privacy officer , says the medical practice did not pay a ransom Attack.Ransom . Rather , it was able to use backups to regain computer access . In a letter to patients , Blue Springs Family Care said it had no evidence patients ’ information had been used by unauthorized individuals . But it said it had taken steps to strengthen its defenses against similar attacks in the future . Peterson says the family medical practice has essentially rebuilt its computer system from scratch “ to make sure that no traces of any kind of virus were left in the system. ” The number of affected patients was as large as it was because the medical practice is required to keep medical records going back 10 years . Peterson says both the FBI and Blue Springs Police Department were notified of the attack . So far , the hackers have not been identified , she says . Blue Springs Family Care ’ s computer vendor discovered the ransomware attack Attack.Ransom on May 12 . In its letter to patients , Blue Springs Family Care said it hired a forensic IT company to help quarantine the affected systems and to install software to monitor whether any unauthorized person was accessing the system . The attack on Blue Springs Family Care was not an anomaly . Health care businesses in particular have been targeted by ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom . According to Beazly , a cybersecurity insurance company , 45 percent of ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom in 2017 targeted the health care industry . Financial services , which accounted for 12 percent of ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom , were a distant second . Last month , Cass Regional Medical Center in Harrisonville , Missouri , reported a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom had briefly cut off access to its electronic health record system on July 9 . Hospital officials said there was no indication patient data was accessed Attack.Databreach . Cass Regional was just the latest of many Missouri health care institutions targeted in the last few months by cyber-attackers . Others include Children ’ s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City , Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis , Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital in St. Peters and John J. Pershing VA Medical Center in Poplar Bluff . In Kansas , the Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation of Kansas , the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services , Atchison Hospital Association and a private medical practice in McPherson have all been hit with cyberattacks since March . “ If you think about what ’ s in a health or medical record , there ’ s a lot of information that could be used to create or falsify documents on an individual , ” says Madeline Allen , an assistant vice president in the cybertech practice at Lockton Companies , a Kansas City-based insurance broker . “ So think about your medical record that contains not only your health information but also your name and address , your social security number , your date of birth , oftentimes a driver ’ s license number . “ All of those things can be used to impersonate you , whether it be to open a line of credit , apply for a loan , file a tax return – all of those things . Pretty much everything you need would be found in your health record , '' Allen says . `` If you can get a full health record on someone , it ’ s pretty valuable information to the bad guys as they ’ re looking to monetize that information. ” For health care institutions , Allen says , it ’ s not so much a question of whether they will be attacked as when . As such , she says , apart from instituting technical measures , the most important thing they can do to ward off cyberattacks is to educate their employees . “ Let them know that people are constantly trying to attack from all angles and the attacks are pretty sophisticated , ” she says . “ It ’ s very easy to click on a link thinking it ’ s legitimate or respond to an email that looks legitimate when in fact it ’ s not . So I think the education of employees and staff is perhaps the biggest step that health care facilities can take . ”

East Ohio Regional Hospital in Harper 's Ferry , Ohio , and Ohio Valley Medical Center in Wheeling , West Virginia , both got affected by ransomware on the last weekend of November . [ 1 ] Due to this incident , ambulance patients were transported to other hospitals nearby and emergency room admissions were limited to walk-up patients only . Due to attack , employees needed to switch to paper charting and various systems were taken offline immediately . This fairly quick response limited the ransomware damage and prevented the possible data breach Attack.Databreach . [ 2 ] According to Karin Janiszewski , director of marketing and public relations for EORH and OVMC , hospitals reacted as soon as possible and , at the moment of writing , they are already using the computer network . On the following Saturday , Karin Janiszewski stated : There has been no patient information breach Attack.Databreach . The hospitals are switching to paper charting to ensure patient data protection . We have redundant security , so the attack was able to get through the first layer but not the second layer . IT staff dealt with the outbreak to avoid a data breach Attack.Databreach When it comes to malware attacks on large companies , the loss Attack.Databreach of personal customer data is the worst thing that can happen . It seems that this time the situation was handled quick enough to prevent having the sensitive data being compromised Attack.Databreach . IT team took several computers offline , and , because of this , most of the clinical operations transferred to other units , and emergency patients were automatically taken to different locations . On Saturday , when the incidents occurred , hospital officials stated that the staff is ready to take everything on paper until the downtime is over . Also , since this is a ransomware-type malware attack Attack.Ransom , hackers demand a ransom Attack.Ransom . However , officials did not select the scenario involving making the payment Attack.Ransom . No matter how big or how little the ransom demand Attack.Ransom is , officials should n't even consider making the payment Attack.Ransom because it may lead to system damage or permanent data loss . [ 3 ] In the United States , data breaches Attack.Databreach and malware attacks on huge organizations have become a common thing , especially in the healthcare industry . In 2016 Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital paid the demanded ransom Attack.Ransom in Bitcoin after having its data encrypted . [ 4 ] The infection was widespread and the attack Attack.Ransom cost around $ 17 000 . Another incident that resulted in ransom payment Attack.Ransom was spotted in Kansas Heart Hospital in 2016 also . Unfortunately , after the payment was made Attack.Ransom , attackers disappeared ignoring the promise to decrypt locked files . They send yet another ransom demand Attack.Ransom instead and asked for Attack.Ransom a bigger amount of money . Previously this year , the Indiana-based hospital got infected with SamSam which is an infamous ransomware virus which has been relying on specific infection tactics which is highly personalized . After considering different scenarios , the hospital decided to pay Attack.Ransom 4 BTC ( equal to $ 45 000 at that time ) for ransomware developers to get private keys needed for files ' recovery . Ransomware developers gave what they promised .

Mere days after thousands of MongoDB databases were hit by ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom , cybercriminals have set their sights on ElasticSearch servers , according to reports . Hackers have reportedly hijacked insecure servers exposed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to the internet with weak and easy-to-guess passwords . ElasticSearch is a Java-based search engine , commonly used by enterprises for information cataloguing and data analysis . According to security researcher Niall Merrigan , who has been monitoring the attacks Attack.Ransom , the cybercriminals are currently closing in on around 3,000 ElasticSearch servers . Merrigan told IBTimes UK : `` We found the first one on the 12th of Jan and then started tracking the different IOCs ( Indicators Of Compromise ) . The first actor has levelled off and looks like it has stopped . However , a second and third actor have joined in and are continuing to compromise servers . `` Attackers are finding open servers where there is no authentication at all . This can be done via a number of services and tools . Unfortunately , system admins and developers have been leaving these unauthenticated systems online for a while and attackers are just picking off the low hanging fruit right now . '' The recent MongoDB attacks Attack.Ransom saw hackers demand ransom Attack.Ransom and erasing data to ensure victims ' compliance . In the ongoing ElasticSearch attacks Attack.Ransom , the cybercriminals demand a ransom Attack.Ransom of 0.2 Bitcoins , according to a report by BleepingComputer . However , according to Merrigan , $ 20,000 in Bitcoins have already been paid Attack.Ransom by victims of the MongoDB attack Attack.Ransom . Despite paying the ransom Attack.Ransom , the victims have not received their data back . `` So in this case it is a scam , '' the researcher said .

A brand new RIG campaign has been registered over the past few days . According to Heimdal Security , it ’ s been targeting the old versions of popular applications such as Internet Explorer , Microsoft Edge , or Flash , in order to distribute the Cerber ransomware . The campaign involves a number of malicious domains to launch drive-by attacks against unsuspecting visitors and relies on their failure to update applications regularly . Nevertheless , according to Heimdal Security , just the outdated versions of Internet Explorer , Silverlight , Flash Player , and Microsoft Edge are targeted . Heimdal Security also claims Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that RIG attempts to exploit one of 8 vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer , Silverlight , Flash Player , and Microsoft Edge , including CVE-2015-8651 ( CVSS Score : 9.1 ) , CVE-2015-5122 ( CVSS Score : 10 , affects nearly 100 Flash versions ) , CVE-2016-4117 ( CVSS Score : 10 ) , CVE-2016-1019 ( CVSS Score : 10 ) , CVE-2016-7200 and CVE-2016-7201 ( both CVSS Score : 7.6 , affecting Microsoft Edge ) , CVE-2016-3298 ( CVSS Score : 3.6 , affects Internet Explorer versions 9 , 10 , 11 ) , and CVE-2016-0034 ( CVSS Score : 9.3 ) . After infecting the victim ’ s PC , the exploit kit continues downloading and installing the Cerber ransomware . This is one of the most dangerous infections developed to encrypt user ’ s files and demand a ransom Attack.Ransom for the decryption key . According to security researchers , the RIG exploit kit version which was noticed in this campaign is the Empire Pack version ( RIG-E ) , while the abused domains are part of the so-called Pseudo-Darkleech gateway . Last month , the gate was registered dropping Cerber as well . In the past , it was used to distribute some other types of ransomware . The Heimdal Security experts state that the only thing which users must do to ensure increased protection is to keep their software updated at all times . Long said to be essential to good security , applying security updates in a timely manner is at the heart of prevention when it comes to exploit kit attacks . “ As you can see , cybercriminals often use vulnerabilities already patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability by the software developer in their attacks , because they know that most users fail to apply updates when they ’ re released . In spite of the wave of attacks , many Internet users still choose to ignore updates , but we hope that alerts such as this one will change their mind and make them more aware of the key security layer that updates represent , ” the Heimdal Security evangelist Andra Zaharia states

The largest NHS trust in England has been hit by a cyber-attack that could affect thousands of files across at least four London hospitals . Barts health trust , which runs five hospitals in east London – the Royal London , St Bartholomew ’ s , Whipps Cross , Mile End and Newham – has sent a message to staff urging them not to open email attachments from unknown senders . “ We are urgently investigating this matter and have taken a number of drives offline as a precautionary measure , a Barts spokeswoman said . “ We have tried and tested contingency plans in place and are making every effort to ensure that patient care will not be affected ” . It was reported earlier on Friday that the trust had been targeted with ransomware , which is normally delivered via emails that trick Attack.Phishing the recipient into opening attachments and releasing malware on to their system . But the spokeswoman ruled out such an attack on Friday night . The trust has not said how much of its system has been affected by the attack or whether patient data has been compromised but it said it believed that most of the affected system was housing corporate data . The trust ’ s filing system between departments has been turned off while the investigation takes place . Staff at the Royal Free London foundation trust were also warned to beware of attacks on Friday , the Guardian has learned . “ We have been informed of a major cyber-attack on NHS organisations . Please exercise extreme caution when opening any email attachments from unknown source or that don ’ t seem relevant to you . We will be carrying out security scans on all computers within the trust so please leave them switched on until further notice , ” wrote the trust ’ s IT director , Tosh Mondal . A spokesman said the email was in reaction to the Barts attack and that the Royal Free London , as well as Barnet and Chase Farm hospitals , had not been affected . NHS Digital said it was aware that Barts had been infected by a “ virus which has affected their IT systems ” . A spokesperson said : “ This issue highlights the fact that there are threats to data security within the health and care sector , as with any other sector . We remain committed to supporting the protection of data with the highest possible security standards , high levels of security expertise from the centre and appropriate training and awareness of the risks for all staff ” . She declined to answer questions about whether other NHS trusts had been affected , how much data may have been affected and who may be behind the attack . In October , the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole foundation trust was hit Attack.Ransom by an attack in which malware was used to encrypt files and demand a ransom Attack.Ransom in order to restore access . The trust did not pay the ransom Attack.Ransom but was forced to cancel patient appointments as its systems were shut down to remove the virus . John Bambenek , a threat intelligence manager at the firm Fidelis Cybersecurity , said : “ The trouble is that local authorities and governments aren ’ t very prepared and they have extremely valuable information that simply can ’ t be lost , so they ’ re a tempting target for cybercriminals . “ Cyber defence is essential , but it ’ s no longer enough ; organisations of all sizes need to invest in detecting threats as well . Only then will cyber criminals be caught early enough to expel them from the network before serious damage is done ”

Barts Health Trust , which runs The Royal London , St Bartholomew 's , Whipps Cross , Mile End and Newham hospitals , is investigating the breach . The trust said it could now rule out ransomware , in which email recipients are tricked Attack.Phishing into opening attachments which contain viruses , as the cause . It has not confirmed how much of its system was affected but said there was no sign that patient data was accessed Attack.Databreach . In a statement said : `` We are urgently investigating this matter and have taken a number of drives offline as a precautionary measure . `` We have tried and tested contingency plans in place and are making every effort to ensure that patient care will not be affected . '' The incident Attack.Ransom follows a similar attack Attack.Ransom on the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Foundation Trust in October , when malware was used to encrypt files on the trust 's system and demand a ransom Attack.Ransom in order to access them again . The trust did not pay out Attack.Ransom , but was forced to cancel patient appointments while its systems were shut down to remove the virus

The hackers could then lock these computers up and demand a ransom Attack.Ransom or else cause a blackout or poison the city 's water . While that 's a scary scenario , it fortunately has n't happened—yet . But a group of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology warn that could change very soon , and to prove it they have developed and tested in their lab a working proof of concept ransomware that specifically targets three types of PLCs . In their scenario , a group of cybercriminals targets PLCs that are exposed online and infects them with custom malware designed to reprogram the tiny computer with a new password , locking out the legitimate owners . The hackers then alert the owner , asking for a ransom Attack.Ransom . `` Ransomware '' is a specific type of malicious software that infects computers and locks or encrypts their content , demanding a ransom Attack.Ransom to return the machines to their original state . It 's been extremely popular in the last couple of years , and is often successful because it 's usually easier for victims to pay the ransom Attack.Ransom than try to decrypt the files on their own . Initially , ransomware targeted regular internet users indiscriminately , but there have already been cases of attacks against hospitals , hotels and other businesses . ( And there will soon be attacks on Internet of Things too ) Thus , the researchers argue , it 's inevitable that criminals will soon target critical infrastructure directly . Beyah and his colleagues David Formby and Srikar Durbha searched the internet for the two models of PLCs that they attacked in the lab and found more 1,500 that were exposed online . With their research , Beyah said , the three hope that industrial control systems administrators will start adopting common security practices such as changing the PLCs default passwords , putting them behind a firewall , and scanning the networks for potential intruders . If they do n't , they might find their systems locked , and the consequence could spill into the physical world .