Content by Marianne Kolbasuk McGee

CyberEdBoard Insights: Christopher Frenz

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee  •  September 17, 2024

The healthcare sector is plagued by increasingly complex cyberthreats, and simply meeting compliance standards is not doing enough to protect sensitive healthcare data, according to Christopher Frenz, assistant vice president of IT security at Mount Sinai South Nassau.

CyberEdBoard Profiles in Leadership: John F. Banghart

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee  •  September 16, 2024

John F. Banghart has spent 30 years in cybersecurity, and he appreciates the importance of creative thinking, upskilling and collaboration. Looking back on the Heartbleed vulnerability, Banghart said the incident demonstrates the need to address software supply chain risks causing problems today.

Clinical Considerations When Recovering From Ransomware

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee  •  September 16, 2024

Preparing healthcare organizations to respond to and rebound from a disruptive ransomware attack is akin to implementing a "12-step program," said Dr. Eric Liederman, CEO of consultancy CyberSolutionsMD and recently retired long-serving director of medical informatics at Kaiser Permanente.

Eliminating the Need for Stored Credentials in Healthcare

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee  •  September 13, 2024

Authentication requiring stored credentials is not only vulnerable to phishing and other compromises, but using these credentials can also be cumbersome for busy clinicians, said Tina Srivastava, co-founder of Badge, a provider of deviceless, tokenless authentication technology.

Why Aren't More Rural Hospitals Accepting Free Cyber Help?

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee  •  September 12, 2024

Rural and small hospitals and other healthcare providers often complain that a lack of resources is a major factor stunting their cybersecurity maturity. But even when offered free or discounted cyber assistance, many of these organizations aren't signing up.

CyberEdBoard Profiles in Leadership: George Chacko

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee  •  September 11, 2024

George Chacko, executive director of information security and compliance at New York Blood Center, shares his journey in cybersecurity, the challenges for nonprofit organizations with limited budgets and resources, and collaborative initiatives to improve security programs.

Mental Health Records Database Found Exposed on Web

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee  •  September 11, 2024

An AI-powered virtual care provider's unsecured database allegedly exposed thousands of sensitive mental health and substance abuse treatment records between patients and their counselors on the internet - where they were available to anyone, said the security researcher who discovered the trove.

CyberEdBoard Insights: Phil Englert and Errol Weiss

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee  •  September 10, 2024

Healthcare organizations often face obstacles in sharing cybersecurity information. Phil Englert and Errol Weiss from Health-ISAC advocate for shifting the focus from legal risks to business risks, improving incident response and building resilience through collaboration and transparency.

Acadian Ambulance Notifying Nearly 3 Million of Data Theft

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee  •  September 9, 2024

A Louisiana-based ambulance company that provides emergency medical care services in four states is notifying nearly 3 million people that their sensitive health information was potentially stolen in a June hack. Ransomware gang Daixin claims to have published the data on its dark web leak site.

Texas AG Hopes to Upend HIPAA Rules to Investigate Abortions

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee  •  September 6, 2024

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the Biden administration, alleging that "unlawful" HIPAA Privacy Rule regulations are hindering the state's law enforcement investigations into abortion cases and other reproductive health care cases.

Feds Warn Health Sector to Patch Apache Tomcat Flaws

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee  •  September 6, 2024

Federal authorities are alerting healthcare entities of vulnerabilities - including older flaws - that put Apache Tomcat at risk for attacks if left unmitigated. The open-source web server is heavily used in healthcare for hosting electronic health record and other systems and applications.

RansomHub Claims Theft of Montana Planned Parenthood Data

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee  •  September 5, 2024

Planned Parenthood of Montana, which provides patients with reproductive healthcare services including birth control and abortion, is responding to a hack and a threat by cybercriminal group RansomHub to leak 93 gigabytes of data allegedly stolen from the organization.

HHS OCR Drops Appeal of Court's Web Tracker Ruling

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee  •  September 4, 2024

The Department of Health and Human Services has dropped its appeal of a recent federal court decision saying that HHS exceeded its authority in warning HIPAA-regulated entities that it's unlawful to use online tracking tools to capture certain identifiers in user visits to health-related websites.

Radiology IT Vendor Hack Hits 4 Practices, 411,000 People

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee  •  September 3, 2024

A vendor that provides information systems and transcription services to radiology practices is alerting 411,037 people of a hack discovered last December involving the theft of sensitive data. The firm already faces at least four proposed federal class action lawsuits related to the hack.

Expanding Vendor Base, Shrinking Security Perimeter?

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee  •  September 3, 2024

Ransomware remains a critical concern for healthcare systems, affecting the availability of patient care. Hugo Lai, CISO at Temple University Health System, said defenders need to understand the dependencies within business processes to effectively combat ransomware.