Privacy & Security

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been pursuing trials to explore new ways to manage data, Big Blue is focused on blockchain's security protections.

National Audit Office investigation into the WannaCry attack finds NHS organisations ‘had tended to overestimate’ their readiness to deal with cyber attacks.

Researchers say this virus is significantly more powerful than the Mirai botnet of 2016, which shut down Netflix, Twitter, Spotify and other major websites in October 2016.

While tracking the Equation Group in 2014, the cybersecurity firm detected one malware incident with unknown variants in the U.S.

[East Anglia, UK] Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust has appointed the first Chief Clinical Information Officer (CCIO) to help drive use of digital technology and information, improving outcomes for patients. Dr Toral Thomas, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist at the trust, has now taken over the new role. He will be focusing on improving the use of the Electronic Patient Record system and extending e-Prescribing services. In their latest report, Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors said the trust should further review the ‘performance’ of the EPR in order to ensure all employees have access to medical records: “When we last inspected the trust in July 2016 they had introduced a new electronic records system. We were very concerned about the performance of this system. Since then the trust had undertaken various improvement initiatives and some progress had been made. “However, at this inspection we observed that it remained difficult to establish a contemporaneous record of patient care in some services. We also observed that technical problems with the system, particularly in community services, meant staff could not always access records. “We acknowledge the trust had attempted to resolve these issues but we remained concerned about the risks to safe patient care.” Dr Bohdan Solomka, Medical Director, said the development of the new CCIO role ‘directly responds’ to concerns previously raised by the CQC: “Toral will focus on what we can to do help our frontline clinicians use technology to improve the quality of everything we do and the care which our patients receive. “He will act as a conduit between the IT team and our frontline clinicians, who use the systems every day, and will feedback their views on our current systems as well as ideas for improvements.” Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust is the seventh largest mental health trust in the UK, providing services for adults and children across Norfolk and Suffolk. Dr Thomas said: “The technology will not replace the kindness and dedicated service we provide, but will hopefully serve to enhance it. “In my new role I want to help take the great ideas which staff have on the clinical frontline forward and find ways to share some of the fantastic practice that happens every day throughout our Trust.”

Move bolsters Imprivata’s authentication and access management platform for healthcare, means more focus on population health management for Caradigm.

The embattled company is hoping to prove its innocence and regain the trust lost by continued reports that the company may have ties to Russia.

The computer network of Pinehurst-based FirstHealth of the Carolinas was shut down by a new form of WannaCry last week. The health system detected the virus on Tuesday afternoon, and the organization took its system offline while it attempted to remove the malware from its system, according to FirstHealth’s alert. FirstHealth’s staff initiated its downtime procedures at that time. [Also: WannaCry victim NHS Lanarkshire hit by new ransomware strain] The site has not yet been updated with its current status, but officials said it will remain offline out of an abundance of caution to make sure all devices and its system are clear of the threat. The organization developed an antivirus patch specifically for the WannaCry virus, which it's implementing across the entire network. FirstHealth will provide the tool for other healthcare organizations to use. [Also: The biggest healthcare breaches of 2017 (so far)] “As a result of the quick response by the information system security team, the virus did not reach any patient information, operational information or databases,” officials said. “Patient information has not been compromised.  At this time, it appears that no damage has occurred to the network or devices. “We are experiencing some delays and appointment cancellations as a result of the downtime event,” officials continued. “This does not apply to critical and emergent needs. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.” WannaCry first struck in May, devastating organizations around the globe, including the UK’s National Health Service. The ransomware strain was part of April’s massive NSA leak from the cybercriminal group the Shadow Brokers. Although a kill switch was found for the virus a day later, it merely slowed down the attack. Overall, 300,000 users from 150 countries fell victim to the virus. Twitter: @JessieFDavis Email the writer: jessica.davis@himssmedia.com

In response to the influx of data breaches caused by misconfigured cloud databases, the security firm has developed a tool that will let administrators check if their bucket is inadvertently being shared with the public.

Hospitals are uniquely susceptible to security risks when different corporate and IT cultures come together.