Ransomware. It’s become an almost weekly headline in the healthcare industry. Hospitals in California, Washington, D.C., Texas, and other areas of the country have found themselves at the mercy of hackers who can completely paralyze the IT infrastructure. What’s at stake? Patient care, Protected Health Information (PHI) of countless patients and reputation of the hospital. Phishing seems to be the main mode of attack, meaning that the opening of a single seemingly harmless email could put a healthcare organization on the hook for thousands, maybe millions of dollars if they don’t comply with the hacker’s demands. That cost doesn’t even include the possibility of severe HIPAA fines if any PHI is compromised.
As a health IT professional, what can you do if faced with a ransomware attack? Swift and immediate action must be taken as time is of the essence. Below are step-by-step instructions that your team should follow to limit the amount of damage caused by ransomware:
While containing and eradicating the ransomware, use the broadcasting feature of your secure texting service to update every one of the current statuses.
If you need any help with establishing a Secure Texting Command Center for your healthcare organization, please do not hesitate to contact QliqSOFT. If you would like to learn more about how secure texting can be used as a disaster preparedness tool, schedule a free 30-minute demo HERE.
Krishna Kurapati is the Founder and CEO of QliqSOFT. He has more than two decades of technology entrepreneurship experience. Kurapati started QliqSOFT with the strong desire to solve clinical collaboration and workflow challenges using artificial intelligence (AI)-powered digital technologies across the U.S. healthcare system.
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