Don Kasprzak

Mobile ransomware in healthcare

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date February 16, 2018

After WannaCry mobile ransomware is infecting hospital-issued mobile phones and tablets.

Mobile ransomware attacks in 2017 built upon the sharp increase from earlier years. This is simply malware that steals sensitive data or locks your smartphone permanently.

This is exactly like the WannaCry ransomware attacks that occurred in 2017.
Those same criminals will demand bitcoin payments before unlocking your device.

These mobile ransomware attacks on hospital-issued mobile devices carry risks of exposing PHI data. This is especially important if a hospital workforce employee is accessing PHI data on a personal device that is not secure.

Today healthcare needs Mobile Device Management (MDM) more than ever. Respectable MDM services install a “secure container” on a mobile device that ensures hospital data downloaded to a mobile device is stored in a secure, encrypted directory on the device. This can even prevent the user from copying the data from the container.

Tags android, cyber attacks, healthcare, hospital, mobile, ransomware, Smartphone

Cyberinfrastructure Education Milwaukee Network Ransomware Technology

Ivanti Interchange Podcast

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date January 28, 2018

I was humbled to be considered a guest on Ivanti’s Interchange Podcast addressing ransomware in healthcare.

I added their new series to my collection of InfoSec podcasts as soon as our Hospital server team acquired Ivanti’s Patch for Windows service back in June. In this timeframe, I suggested to our Hospital’s IT patch subcommittee to consider adding Ivanti’s Patch Tuesday Webinar series into our meeting schedule.

Ivanti launched their monthly webinar in April 2017 and provide a solid overview to Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday releases. This also includes key third-party updates from Adobe, Google, and Mozilla.

After registering for October’s webinar, by chance an out-of-the-blue a marketing specialist from Ivanti called. When I confirmed our participation in the coming Patch webinar, they suggested considering their new IT Interchange Podcast. I believe they were pleasantly surprised that I was able to recite all their podcast topics.

Tags change management, cybersecurity, Erica Azad, healthcare, Interchange, it interchange podcast, ivanti, McKay Allen, patch management, patch tuesday, patching for windows, Steve Eror

Cyberinfrastructure Education Milwaukee Network Ransomware Technology

Ivanti Patch for Windows

The 2017 Ransomware attacks on healthcare or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Ivanti.

Ivanti’s Patch for Windows helps hospitals, clinics, and health systems mitigate ransomware attacks with agile change management, security controls and third-party patching for healthcare in the age of ransomware.

How did hospitals and clinics come to rely upon Ivanti? In 2017 the healthcare industry was confronted for the first time by a multi-headed monster in ransomware attacks. WannaCry, NotPetya and multiple ransomware strains have forever changed the data security landscape for hospitals, clinics and health systems.

Tags change management, chris goettl, cyber insurance, cyberinsurance, cybersecurity, healthcare, HITRUST, ivanti, malware, medical device, Patch for Windows, patch management, patch tuesday, ransomware

Cyberinfrastructure Education Milwaukee Network Ransomware Technology

2017 Ransomware attacks on Healthcare

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date January 27, 2018
1 Comment on 2017 Ransomware attacks on Healthcare

Ransomware attacks on Hospitals and Clinics have just begun

For the first time the healthcare industry was attacked by a multi-headed ransomware monster. This is only the beginning of a new attack model for hospitals and clinics to confront moving forward.
2017 Ransomware attacks

Since the first ransomware attack in early 2016 I have observed how this became a credible threat to hospitals. In 2017 an seemingly overwhelming series of attacks forced hospitals and clinics around the country to adjust long-held views and policies of information security. Due to the amount of news coverage I have added a timeline to this post to indicate how ransomware became part of the social mainstream.

Overview

A ransomware primer in three parts:
Ransomware is not new
PHI data remains highly valuable on the dark web
The Shadow Brokers, Wikileaks, and the CIA

2016 – Setting the stage
February 5th – Hollywood Presbyterian
July 12: HHS issues new guidance

2017 – The attacks begin
May 12: WannaCry IT infrastructure attacks
May 15: WannaCry medical device attacks
June 13: WannaCry building control attacks
June 15: US Congress: Lessons learned from WannaCry
June 29: NotPetya attacks
July 25: Nuance confirms NotPetya attack
October 24: Bad Rabbit attack
December 13: Nuance shuts down medical transcription service

Read more about it
Did hospitals ignore the March Microsoft Security Bulletin?
Ransomware in popular culture
Top 2017 Healthcare Ransomware Attacks
Healthcare, Cyber Insurance, & Ransomware
US Senate Bill S.2179-Data Security & Breach Notification Act

Tags bad rabbit, clinical engineering, cyber insurance, cybersecurity, DHS, ECRI, healthcare, HITRUST, ivanti, malware, medical device, notpetya, patch management, patch tuesday, patching for windows, ransomware, wannacry

Education Reading Vietnam War

Latest Read: Viet Nam A History from Earliest Times to the Present

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date November 20, 2017

Viet Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present by Ben Kiernan is a refreshing historical view void of French or American influence. Kiernan is a professor of History, International, and Area Studies at Yale University.
My interest, of course, French and American wars focused on Part Five: Colonies: Chapter 9 Writing and Revolution from Colonialism to Independence, 1920-54.

Kiernan delivers an amazing deep look at the American nightmare in Southeast Asia in the twentieth century. We have few if any books that look at Vietnam’s history from Kiernan’s perspective.

Still seeking to learn new insights into French rule across Indochina this was a deep, intense review of the shifting powers between Ho Chi Minh and Bao Dai. Kiernan should be credited with documenting the impact of a great famine over the previous sixty years.

This produced a very odd relationship. Bao Dai was the final emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty, the last ruling family of Vietnam. Until the end of the Second World War, Bao Dai was appointed emperor of Annam under French rule. His role remained after March 1945 when Japanese troops ousted French military rule throughout Indochina. He abdicated upon the Japanese surrendered.

Yet during the previous two generations, thousands of Vietnamese starved to death. Kiernan reveals in elaborate research the role of journalism spreading in the early 1900s throughout Indochina. The most immediate impact was upon Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism throughout Vietnam. This also launched the first public political parties in 1919.

Bao Dai ruled the State of Vietnam from 1949 to 1955 under French influence during the first Indochina war. Yet he ruled from Hong Kong and China. After the French installed Dai to govern the country, Ho persuaded Dai to abdicate in August 1945. His departure handed power to the Viet Minh. Yet Dai was appointed Supreme Advisor to Ho’s Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

Tags bao dai, ben kiernan, George F. Kennan, Ho Chi Minh, indochina, Montagnard, Viet Nam, Viet Nam A History from Earliest Times to the Present, Vietnam War