Get the latest tech news
Red Tape Is Making Hospital Ransomware Attacks Worse
With cyberattacks increasingly targeting health care providers, an arduous bureaucratic process meant to address legal risk is keeping hospitals offline longer, potentially risking lives.
Health care professionals, lawyers, and cybersecurity experts tell WIRED that amid the chaos caused by criminal hackers, a little-known bureaucratic process can slow down hospitals and medical providers getting their systems working again. “Negotiating with hundreds of vendors each with their own unique set of requirements to reconnect was an arduous and time-consuming process,” says Sean Fitzpatrick, the vice president of external communications at Ascension, a network of 140 hospitals and thousands of affiliated providers across 19 states, which was hit by ransomware in May. “We’ve really seen the demand for these letters increase over the past few years as breaches have become much more litigious—from class actions lawyers chasing settlements to lawsuits between businesses,” says Chris Cwalina, the global head of cybersecurity and privacy at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright.
Or read this on Wired