Ransomware

The nationwide health system said Wednesday that files taken from its system during a breach in May likely contained personal information. The attack’s discovery impacted appointments, surgeries and ambulances.

Shuttered Monday and Tuesday while officials probed what had first been described as a “cyber incident,” the Ohio city hall was poised for a restart Wednesday. The threat remains under investigation.

Most of the Kansas city’s court system is back online, as is public Wi-Fi at libraries; and residents can once again pay water bills online. Other services and systems are expected to come back online soon.

The company, which operates hospitals, pharmacies and health-care facilities nationwide, expects to restore electronic health records by June 14, following a ransomware attack in early May. Restoration of other systems is still ongoing.

Unlike some other companies, NukuDo, which operates the school, pays students $4,000 a month during their training. The agreement is that upon course completion, they must work where it places them for three years.

The ransomware attack May 8 on Ascension, one of the largest health systems in the country, has impacted its medical facilities nationwide. The company’s Michigan entity announced the service disruption to its pharmacies Wednesday.

Hackers who breached Wichita, Kan., police and traffic records were able to access residents’ personal information, including names, Social Security numbers and driver's licenses. Since then, the city’s network has remained down.

The health-care network is doing restoration after a ransomware attack May 8 affected network systems tracking test results, procedures and medications. Ascension runs more than 350 hospitals and urgent care centers in Indiana alone.

The Biden administration plans to require hospitals to meet minimum cybersecurity standards, and will provide free training to small, rural hospitals. The moves follow the February Change Healthcare hack that may impact 1 in 3 Americans.

The entity claimed responsibility for a Wichita incident confirmed Sunday, that prompted the shutdown of the City Hall computer network. As a result, many departments moved to paper and cash-only operations.

The city of Wichita has shut down its computer network in response to a cyber attack, leaving some city services temporarily unavailable and requiring first responders to switch to backup procedures.

The U.S. Department of Education and the University of California at Berkeley's Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity will hold a summit in October and develop actionable insights for ed-tech vendors.

Lost data is just one lingering consequence of an April 2023 cyber attack on the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Officials will replace a compromised database, upgrade outdated hardware and harden cybersecurity.

Alaska CIO Bill Smith said that while ransomware is a huge threat and priority for him and the other state CIOs at the NASCIO Midyear conference, the most important way to turn the tide is getting back to basic cyber hygiene.

Bill Zielinski, who has led the Information and Technology Services department since 2020, will step down April 30. In recent years, he led the city’s response to a ransomware attack, and to the deletion of millions of police records.

In the wake of the incident earlier this year, Willamette Valley districts are conducting mandatory cybersecurity training for staff and using multifactor authentication.

The group behind the March 21 cyber attack has published information it obtained on the dark web, the Tarrant Appraisal District said. People whose information has been compromised have been notified by mail.

The ransomware group Medusa claimed responsibility for a cyber attack earlier this month that disrupted the network at Traverse City Area Public Schools in Michigan and forced it to cancel classes for days.