| Hackers locked the files at Brookside ENT and Hearing Center, demanding $6,500 for the decryption key to regain access to their files.A decision was made between Scalf and his partner, Dr. John Bizon to not pay the ransom. Despite hackers having full control over the practice's computer system, there was no guarantee that the files would be restored if the ransom was paid, or that the hackers would not request additional funds following the receipt of the initial request.Failure to pay the ransom resulted in the cybercriminals completely wiping out the practice's computer system, including all their patient records, appointment schedules, and payment information. According to Bizon, the practice's electronic health record system's files were encrypted, therefore no patient data was accessed by the hacker. Bizon also stated that no files were copied or shared prior to them being deleted.Rather than rebuild the practice, the doctor's have decided to call it quits and take early retirement. Unfortunately for the patients of Brookside ENT and Hearing Center, their next steps won't be quite as easy as calling it quits. Since all patient data was deleted in the attack, patients will need to start all over at another medical center with no medical records.This failure of the I.T. team shows how a simple backup could have saved the practice. Do you know you have backups. Really, do you know and have seen that backups take place?We recently took over a medical practice that said they had backups and did not. In reality what they had was the "server" was really a workstation pc with 1 hard drive making backups to the same drive. If the drive would have failed all data would have been lost.Call Qbitz LLC to get your backups done onsite and off. We can also show them to you so you can also see. Since we own the offsite backup servers as well your data always stays secure. |
