One of the dental practices in Reno faced a Ransomware issue because of which the dental records and images were not accessed for at least 5 days. The attack was found on 30th October 2017. The affected software was used on the device and the server by the management of the practice. It is the specialty of Ransomware that it can be installed using different ways. The most common way by which the virus attacks is the email process.
In this case, the source of the virus may be the same. The virus was downloaded with a mistake from an employee. The employee mistakenly clicked on the linked attached in the email. Although the IT staff members and the experts for this were able to create the files and remove the virus in a quick mean, but the whole process took 5 days to complete. The management and other staff members were unable to access the images and records till 4th November.
The viral attacked file contained very sensitive information of the patients like the names, the dates of their births, diagnoses issues, the addresses, images, treatment plans, SSN and the health insurance information. For this issue, the management started the detailed investigation plan, although, the data of the patients was easily checked by the attacking people.
The investigation of the theft is still working, although they did not even found that the attackers have theft any of the information or use it in a wrong way. This case also shows that either the data has been accessed or not? Although, all the patients were notified for the attack and for the compensation, they have also been offered for the security services for free. The attack alerted the practice to improve and enhance their system to avoid all the future accidents. Brian E stated in the breach notification that they have trained their experts and upgraded their network and the computer security system.
