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Ransomware Attack: UMC Faces National Security Crisis
Oct 17, 2024
University Medical Center is under a severe ransomware attack, diverting emergency patients and postponing surgeries. Experts label this incident a significant national security threat as UMC navigates its healthcare crisis. Discover the implications and what steps are being taken for recovery. #RansomwareAttack #HealthcareCrisis #CyberSecurity #NationalSecurity #UMC #EmergencyHealthcare #PatientSafety #CyberThreats #Hacking #HealthSystem
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0:00
a cyber security expert is calling the
0:02
ransomware attack on University Medical
0:04
Center Health System a national security
0:07
threat as he first reported yesterday
0:09
the Cyber attack caused an IT outage
0:11
within the health system and forced UMC
0:14
to send incoming emergency and
0:16
Non-Emergency patients to other
0:18
hospitals the diversions continue this
0:20
evening KCBD News Channel 11's
0:22
investigative reporter Shaylee Kidwell
0:25
joins us now with new information about
0:27
how this attack happened and how UMC is
0:30
handling the outage Shay C nner UMC has
0:34
updated its website with new information
0:36
about this ransomware attack and how it
0:38
will continue to operate until its
0:40
systems are restored viewers tell us
0:42
some of their surgeries and treatments
0:44
are postponed as the investigation
0:46
continues we spoke with an expert about
0:49
this who talked about who may be behind
0:51
this attack as UMC navigates this
0:53
healthare crisis the University Medical
0:56
Center Health System is under attack
0:59
this is a national security issue John
1:02
RI is a national adviser for cyber
1:04
security and risk at the American
1:06
Hospital Association in Washington DC
1:09
prior to joining the AHA he spent nearly
1:11
30 years with the FBI little did I
1:14
realize that all that previous
1:15
experience on Counter Intelligence
1:18
International organized crime
1:19
counterterrorism was all directly
1:21
relevant to cyber because it was the
1:23
same bad guys using cyber as their means
1:26
to attack us UMC is the only level one
1:29
Trauma Center within 400 miles while the
1:32
hospital continues to treat its current
1:34
patients incoming emergency and
1:36
Non-Emergency patients must be diverted
1:38
via ambulance to nearby Health
1:40
Facilities when you have the only level
1:43
one Trauma Center in the region shut
1:46
down by Foreign bad guys an ambulance is
1:49
on diversion the next level one Trauma
1:51
Center I understand is hundreds of miles
1:53
away um you're putting people's lives in
1:56
Jeopardy who would do this primarily
1:58
these ransomware attacks are perpetrated
2:01
by Russian organized crime uh gangs and
2:05
quite frankly they are provided Safe
2:06
Harbor by the Russian government to
2:08
conduct these attacks against the United
2:11
States critical infrastructure and
2:13
against Western Nations we're also
2:15
seeing the phenomena now of where
2:17
Russian ransomware gangs may be
2:19
colluding with other nation state actors
2:22
such as the Iranians regi says to
2:25
successfully combat the rise in
2:26
sophisticated ransomware attacks
2:28
Healthcare systems are going to need
2:31
assistance no individual hospital as
2:33
good as they are can defend against
2:35
these very sophisticated nation state
2:38
sponsored or supported attacks we need
2:40
the assistance of the federal government
2:42
to do more on offense to go after these
2:44
bad guys like we did in counterterrorism
2:47
so how does a ransomware attack actually
2:50
work once they initially penetrate the
2:52
organization the bad guys try to do one
2:54
or two things pretty quickly they try to
2:56
steal patient health information which
2:59
they will subsequently hold that for
3:00
ransom they will try to locate and
3:03
encrypt the backups and then encrypt
3:06
networks and their infrastructure to
3:09
shut down Medical Systems and
3:11
information technology systems is your
3:13
organization aware of any other
3:15
hospitals across the country that were
3:17
also hit with some sort of ransomware or
3:20
Cyber attack we are not aware of any
3:23
other hospital at this time that was
3:26
targeted with a high impact ransomware
3:29
attack similar
3:31
tocc says it doesn't have a timeline for
3:34
the full restoration of services in
3:36
general it would not be uncommon for a
3:40
victim of a high impact ransomware
3:42
attack to take up to 30 days for
3:44
Recovery of their systems again putting
3:47
patients in the communities in Jeopardy
3:49
as they're attempting to restore systems
3:51
UMC says its Health Care Facilities
3:54
remain open including emergency centers
3:56
and Urgent Care and UMC physician
3:58
clinics however certain departments and
4:00
providers are on downtime procedures UMC
4:04
says if you have a specific question
4:06
about your treatment or appointment
4:07
contact one of its care sites or your
4:10
provider directly the hospital says it
4:12
is actively working to contact patients
4:15
with further
4:16
instructions as we mentioned UMC has
4:18
updated its website with new information
4:20
about what happened and how it's
4:22
handling this ransomware attack here's
4:24
um how you access that information we've
4:26
pulled up the homepage of UMC you'll see
4:28
this Banner it says for more information
4:30
on the it outage click on learn more if
4:32
you click here you should see a list of
4:35
frequently asked questions along with
4:37
some answers included in this
4:38
information the hospital says it has
4:40
called on third parties that have helped
4:42
other Hospitals address similar issues
4:44
to assist in umc's response and
4:46
investigation again a developing story
4:48
that will continue to follow Kar nner
4:50
thank you Shaye
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