Privacy & Security

"This process has been instrumental in our seamless move to the cloud and digital-transformation program," says CISO Dan Bowden. "We now don't move anything to the cloud without shielding it."

This week's top stories include Google Cloud joining the national COVID-19 vaccination effort, the federal government sending one million COVID-19 vaccine doses directly to 6,500 pharmacies, and a security breach at Montefiore Medical Center.

Because ransomware is rampant in the healthcare sector and threats are constantly evolving, hospitals must continuously monitor for them, say CyberMDX's Amir Vashkover and Philips Healthcare's David Franklin.

"In 2020, we saw ransomware go mainstream," said analysts in a new report released by the cybersecurity vendor, which identified the top five most prevalent strains.

Serco was targeted by Babuk ransomware who claimed to have had access to Serco's systems for three weeks.

Hackers are using phishing attacks against employees working from home to gain their user names and passwords, says Christophe Doré, security manager at Capsule Technologies.

The New York health system said an employee, who has been fired, inappropriately accessed electronic health records and viewed clinical information, including test results and diagnoses.

Theft and fraud are becoming major patient safety issues – and experts say the patchwork nationwide approach to COVID-19 vaccine distribution could be making matters worse.

The pathway discovered at Michigan-based Beaumont Health allowed users to "cut in line" to schedule unauthorized appointments and circumvent current state mandates.

Compliance is a serious, enforceable matter – and must be properly addressed in the context of the workplace challenges and changes that have emerged amid the pandemic.