Ransomware hits Healthcare Providers too.
Ransomware is malicious software that locks and encrypts your computer or computer files, demanding payment to get them back. It could affect all programs and files. Recently in news ransomware attacks took place at Norfork General Hospital in Simcoe, Presbyterian Medical in L.A and the Ottawa General Hospital. Specifically, in local news, at the Ottawa General Hospital various computers were hit with ransomware; encrypting information and making the data totally inaccessible to medical staff, without payment to criminals.
You can protect yourself by:
- RUNNING A BACKUP DAILY
- HAVE AN EXTERNAL DEVICE FOR EACH DAY OF THE WEEK
- DO NOT LEAVE THE BACKUP DEVICE PLUGGED IN AFTER BACKUP IS COMPLETE
- TAKE A COPY OF THE BACKUP OFF SITE EACH NIGHT
A daily backup means in the worse case scenario, you may only be out one day, provided all your backups are good. An external device for each day of the week means if one of your backups are compromised, you can go to the previous day. Backups provides a safeguard from other catastrophic system failures like other cyber attacks (viruses and malware), hardware failure, data corruption, fire or theft.
Possible ramifications of lost data? No ability to track accounts receivables. No cash flow the following month. No schedule or patient data records.
Want to learn more about secure software solutions for your hospital or medical office? Email us at info@yescorp.ca or call 416-800-3770.
