Cybersecurity

Hospitals and health systems continue to recover from a July 18 IT issue disrupting service for some Microsoft customers. 

A global cyber outage that disrupted industries including healthcare, aviation and the media July 19 shows how interconnected IT systems are and the reliance on third-party vendors, health system leaders say.

Two hackers pleaded guilty to participating in a ransomware group that has extorted approximately $500 million from organizations including hospitals.

Poway, Calif.-based Palomar Health Medical Group has made progress in restoring its systems after a cybersecurity event  forced them offline in May. 

UnitedHealth Group's CEO said the company was "over-optimistic" about how quickly business would return to normal following the Change Healthcare cyberattack.

Fairfield (Ill.) Memorial Hospital notified patients of a cybersecurity incident July 3 and is providing resources to protect patients' personal information.

UnitedHealth Group expects costs associated with the February cyberattack against Change Healthcare to cost around $2.45 billion, according to a report in the Star Tribune.

Three U.S. senators have introduced a bill aimed at alleviating the unceasing number of cyberattacks affecting healthcare.

Hackers posted more than 20,000 files stolen from the Florida Department of Health containing physician notes and personal health information on the dark web, according to The Tampa Bay Times.

A former employee of Nuance Communications who was responsible for breaching the records of more than 1.2 million patients at Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger has had their trial pushed back, The Daily Item reported July 12.