Page 89 - Cyber Defense eMagazine June 2020 Edition

What is the motive?

First and foremost, the main reason for data breaches is to make a lot of money by selling patient health
data. In deep web marketplaces medical health record is expected to be worth hundreds or even

thousand dollars as compared to the credit card or social security number which are around 25 cents and
10
10 cents respectively . Further data can be used to make money by creating duplicate credit cards and
conducting frauds. Another scenario may be medical identity theft wherein patient’s data can be used by
someone else for receiving medical treatment, drugs or submitting false claims for medical services.
Finally, the motive can be to damage the healthcare provider’s brand or business by hacking the

intellectual property and selling it to the competitors.

What type of security threats are there?

Hackers and cybercriminals have been keeping the IT security companies on toes. It will not be wrong to
say that as compared to organizations they are the ones using new technologies for devising new ways
to do the crime.

a) Ransomware and other malware

In Nov 2018, two hospitals owned by Ohio Valley Health Services & Education Corporation (Ohio Valley
Medical Center in Wheeling and East Ohio Regional Hospital in Martins Ferry, Ohio) became the victim

of ransomware attack. This attack impacted the emergency functions of medical care as they were forced
to shut down their IT systems.

“At the moment, our emergency rooms are unable to take patients by E-squads, but we can take patients
11
by walk-in ,” (Karin Janiszewski, director of marketing and public relations for EORH and OVMC, 25 Nov
2018)

Ransomware attack in healthcare has serious implications as they can be used to hijack information
systems as well as the medical devices connected through the network or even shut down the entire
medical facility until the ransom is paid. Out of all the industries healthcare is one of the top industries

i
targeted by ransomware attack. Moreover, 18 percent of medical devices have been the target of
ii
malware attacks in last year .

10 https://www.forbes.com/sites/mariyayao/2017/04/14/your-electronic-medical-records-can-be-worth-1000-to-
hackers/#3c11158050cf
11 http://www.timesleaderonline.com/news/local-news/2018/11/hospitals-patient-information-safe-in-eorh-ovmc-
computer-attack/

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