Anesthesiologists who use the information management systems at hospitals are vulnerable to attacks similar to the one at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles in February; attackers hacked into the hospital’s electronic medical record system and asked for around $17,000 — payable in bitcoins — for the data’s return.
Smartphones and other electronic devices are at risk as well. Here are 10 steps from the HealthData Management to avoid the negative consequences from ransomeware attacks:
1. Educate the workforce
2. Ban all personal webmail and surfing
3. Implement data backup
4. Create incident response procedures
5. Filter internet traffic more closely
6. Review network drive access rights
7. Consider next-generation anti-malware tools
8. Evaluate advanced persistent threat tools
9. Implement intrusion prevention systems
10. Patch vulnerable PDF and Flash player versions
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