Ontario Hospital Network Faces Increasing Downtime Costs After Ransomware

Exploit: Ransomware
Company: Listowel Wingham Hospital Alliance
Industry: Medical, Health Services
Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/rural-hospitals-in-southwest-ontario-hit-by-ransomware-attack-1.5301947

The Listowel Wingham Hospital Alliance, which is comprised of two hospitals, was struck by a ransomware attack that significantly curtailed their treatment capabilities. Although the emergency rooms remain open, less urgent patients are enduring long waits or are being transferred to other facilities. In addition, the hospitals are unable to communicate with other healthcare providers until their network is cleared of ransomware-spreading malware. Not only does this put patients’ health at risk, but the recovery expenses and opportunity costs are sure to be immense.

As per sources, no personal information was compromised in the breach.

There are no inexpensive ways to respond to a ransomware attack, which raises the importance of strong cyber security standards that can defend against these attacks. As the cost of a ransomware attack continues to rise, every business needs to be aware of the urgent need to secure their IT infrastructure against this incredibly frustrating and unfortunately expensive cyber security threat.

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