The University of Kansas Health System has a substantial workforce devoted to fighting cyber attacks, and lately, they’ve been busier than ever.
Recently, they've been fighting a new ransomware called Petya. Hackers are using it to hold computers hostage and demanding money. Petya has attacked thousands of computers worldwide, including some hospital computers.
“It’s literally a life and death matter, in certain circumstances, if a hospital goes down,” Dr. Lee Norman told 41 Action News. “You can’t take an x-ray without having your IT systems up and running. You can’t program somebody’s pacemaker in their homes, using telephonic communication for example, unless your computers are up and running. So, the stakes are very high.”
In addition to having a team devoted to identifying and fighting cyber attacks, Norman says employees with the KU health system undergo several training sessions.
“An organization our size, if we were to shut down for a day, it’s millions of dollars of economic impact lost," he said.
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