Becker's Hospital Review

56 CIO / HEALTH IT FBI wants everyone to reboot their routers to avoid Russian- linked malware By Julie Spitzer T he FBI issued a warning May 25 that Russian hackers infected hundreds of thousands of home and office routers with malware, which could collect user information or shut down network access, according to Reuters. e agency urged owners of several brands of routers to mitigate the threat by pow- ering them off and turning them on again, as well as downloading manufacturer updates. e warning followed a court order in which the FBI seized a website that hackers planned to use to provide instructions for the hack. Although malicious communi- cation was disabled, a number of routers were infected. e Justice Department, which obtained the court order, said the hackers were part of a group called Sofacy. e group goes by several monikers, including Fancy Bear, and has been tied to the Russian government. An FBI official said affected devices were likely purchased at electronic stores or on- line, though it is not ruling out routers provided by internet service companies. Cisco Systems said the hacking campaign likely targeted devices from Belkin Internation- al's Linksys, MikroTik, Netgear Inc, TP-Link and QNAP, according to Reuters. e FBI also encouraged people to consider disabling remote-management settings, changing passwords and upgrading to the latest firmware. n VA strikes $10B, 10-year deal with Cerner on EHR overhaul By Julie Spitzer T he U.S. Veterans Affairs Department fi- nalized a contract with Cerner May 17, awarding the EHR vendor $10 billion over the next 10 years to put the VA on the same records system as the U.S. Defense Department. The agreement came almost one year after former VA Secretary David Shulkin, MD, an- nounced Cerner would replace the agen- cy's legacy EHR, VistA. Dr. Shulkin, who was ousted from the agency in March, praised the deal in a tweet. "A big day for @DeptVetAffairs! Congratu- lations all around for finalizing the @Cern- er contract. An important step forward in the modernization of this essential system. Also a huge advance for interoperability standards across the industry. Gratitude to @DeptofDefense, @WhiteHouse, and the @VeteransHealth/ IT team and many others who made this happen," the May 17 tweet read. The award is one of the largest IT contracts in the federal government. The contract re- quires the new electronic records platform be able to share patient data securely and seamlessly between the VA, DOD and com- munity providers. The VA also will be able to add capabilities to the system as necessary to meet the unique needs of veterans, VA clinicians and community providers. "In sum, signing this contract today is an enormous win for our nation's veterans. It puts in place a modern IT system that will support the best possible healthcare for de- cades to come. That's exactly what our na- tion's heroes deserve," said acting VA Secre- tary Robert Wilkie. The VA will work with the DOD, which began its transition to Cerner in February 2017, to avoid problems the DOD encountered with its rollout, including the management and documentation of patient care, poor system usability, insufficient training and in- adequate help desk support. Congress already awarded the VA $782 million in funding for fiscal year 2018 to get the project underway. n IBM bans employees from using flash drives, SD cards: 4 things to know By Jessica Kim Cohen I BM released an advisory to employees worldwide banning the use of removable storage devices, The Register reported. Here are four things to know about the policy change: 1. Shamla Naidoo, global chief information security officer of IBM, wrote in the advisory some segments of IBM already had a policy in place pro- hibiting the use of "removable portable storage devices (eg: USB, SD card, flash drive)" to transfer data. The advisory expanded this policy to all staff worldwide. 2. Ms. Naidoo said the policy shift, which IBM will be implementing over several weeks, is due to "the possible financial and reputational damage from misplaced, lost or misused removable portable storage devices." 3. There has been some staff pushback to the new policy, according to The Register. One key concern among frontline staff is the ability to download software patches, since staff often used USB drives to install these patches on various devices. 4. In an update to its initial story, The Register said IBM is reportedly con- sidering a few exemptions to the ban on removable storage devices, which might include using these devices during software updates. n

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