Cybersecurity news for hospitals and health systems

The sale of ransomware on the dark web grew more than 2,500 percent between 2016 and 2017, according to a Carbon Black report.

A former employee of a Louisiana hospital may have accessed thousands of patient records without authorization for nearly 15 years, a spokesperson from Bogalusa, La.-based Our Lady of the Angels Hospital told Becker's Hospital Review.

Eighty-three percent of IT professionals agree privileged access management is somewhat or extremely important to their security efforts, according to a BeyondTrust survey.

The Government Accountability Office plans to launch a probe into a cyberattack that reportedly targeted the Federal Communications Commission in May, The Hill reports.

North Korea was behind the WannaCry ransomware attacks, which infected more than 300,000 devices in more than 150 countries in May, claimed Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, according to The Telegraph.

Ashland, Mo.-based Namaste Health Care notified 1,600 patients its office experienced a cyberattack in August, reports News Tribune.

An agitated patient fired a handgun Oct. 14 inside his room at Covenant HealthCare's Cooper campus in Saginaw, Mich., reports WSGW.

There are six major ransomware threats hitting businesses this year, according to a Symantec report.

The Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council named Gregory T. Garcia its first executive director for cybersecurity, effective Oct. 1.

Since the number one cause of cyberattacks is insider accidents, healthcare leaders are increasingly searching for more effective ways of training employees on cybersecurity, reports TechRepublic.