Cybersecurity news for hospitals and health systems

A data breach can have a serious impact on a hospital's financial and reputational well-being.

Telehealth company Cerebral is facing a lawsuit that accuses the company of installing tracking technologies on its website and app that led to the protected health information of more than 3 million patients to be sent to social media companies. 

Denison, Texas-based Texoma Medical Center is notifying patients that some of their protected health information was compromised when its consulting company Adelanto HealthCare Ventures was targeted by a phishing attack. 

Montgomery (W.Va.) General Hospital CEO Deborah Hill said the health system was hit with a ransomware attack on March 1, BankInfoSecurity reported April 4. 

Bowman, N.D.-based Southwest Healthcare Services is reporting a data breach that compromised personal information.

A ransomware group leaked patient and employee data from a West Virginia hospital after the organization didn't meet its demands for ransom, DataBreaches.net reported.

Mergers and acquisitions are part and parcel of the hospital business. For chief information security officers, they can present new cybersecurity concerns. 

Tallahassee (Fla.) Memorial HealthCare, which suffered an IT security incident in February, said the attack has compromised patients' Social Security numbers, as well as treatment information. 

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital disclosed that its website used analytics tracking technology that resulted in the personal health information of 54,396 patients to be disclosed to its third-party technology service providers.

Smaller health systems are especially prone to cyberattacks because their networks tend to be easier for hackers to access, according to a presentation by Microsoft cybersecurity leaders reported on by Chief Healthcare Executive.