Security News > 2020 > February > After Malware Attack, Doctor Network Has Widespread Outage

Hundreds of pediatric healthcare providers in Massachusetts were still unable to access their electronic health records systems Thursday after a malware attack earlier this week targeted a large physician network affiliated with Boston Children's Hospital.

The system outage affecting Brookline, Mass.-based Pediatric Physicians Organization at Children's started on Tuesday; the malware attack was discovered on Monday afternoon.

When asked if the malware attack was directly responsible for the system disruption, or if the outage was intentional while IT teams work to contain and remediate the situation, the hospital's spokeswoman said: "The attack was detected late Monday afternoon around 3:30 p.m. The combined PPOC and Boston Children's Hospital IT teams worked swiftly to shut down the network to quarantine the affected PPOC systems and secured the unaffected ones to ensure no further impact."

Some security experts note that the situation illustrates the widespread threat a malware attack can pose to healthcare entities.

"Small clinics tend to outsource IT support services. Therefore, the speed of response necessary to segment the clinic's network from other connected facilities depends on how quickly their vendor can respond. That does not include the time required to triage the initial problem that leads to the conclusion a malware attack is at play and needs to be quarantined."

News URL

https://www.inforisktoday.com/after-malware-attack-doctor-network-has-widespread-outage-a-13720