Becker's Hospital Review

84 CIO / HEALTH IT Phoenix ACO to launch blockchain wallet for physicians, patients By Mackenzie Garrity A rizona Care Network, an ACO based in Phoenix, launched a blockchain platform from Solve.Care Foundation to reduce administration burdens. Solve.Care said it developed the blockchain solution, which is used through a mobile phone, to reduce waste and improve healthcare outcomes. ACN has already introduced Solve.Care's Care.Wallet for physicians. The mobile app, built on the blockchain, aims to streamline benefits administration. The app displays relevant patient data for physicians, as well as the financial rewards physicians can earn from ACN. ACN also plans to launch Care.Wallet for patients, which automat- ically synchronizes patients' benefits information, including de- ductibles and co-pays, co-insurance and out-of-pocket expenses. Patients can then use the app to obtain immediate authorizations, schedule appointments and share benefits information. Armed with real-time, verified data, ACN hopes its staff will be able to reduce the time spent on administrative tasks associ- ated with processing claims. n Hundreds of patient records found burning across from Atlanta hospital By Mackenzie Garrity P iles of patient records were found burning in a dumpster across the street from Atlanta-based Southside Medical Center, according to WSBTV. Southside Medical Center is unsure how hundreds of patients' medical records were found burning in the dumpster and stacked outside in shipping crates. A WSBTV representative who went to the scene found the records in plain sight of the public. Information in the patient documents included Social Secu- rity numbers and medications. Southside Medical Center is investigating the incident. Some of the patient records are 50 years old, according to a hospital spokesperson. In a statement to WSBTV, a hospital spokesperson said, "We are opening a full investigation into this matter. Securing our patient's records and caring for our patients are top priori- ties. We follow strict protocols for removing and destruction of records, which does not include burning. We have recently had several episodes of vandalism from sealed and locked containers, which may be where this occurred, but have not had any reports of missing records." Hospital officials were scheduled to retrieve the shipping crates at the time of publication. n IBM: Cybercriminals abandon ransomware for 'cryptojacking' By Jackie Drees A s more companies increase their cybersecurity measures and awareness, cybercriminals have started altering their techniques to focus more on return on investment, ac- cording to IBM's "2019 X-Force reat Intelligence Index" report. e report is based on observations from 70 billion security events that occurred per day between Jan. 1, 2018, and Dec. 31, 2018, across more than 130 countries. Data is analyzed from multiple sources, including IBM Managed Security Services and X-Force Incident Response and Intelligence Services. Five things to know: 1. e report details two major shis among cybercriminals: a decreased reliance on malware and a decline in ransomware attacks. 2. Cybercriminals have also increased "cryptojacking" attacks — the illegal use of an organization's or individual's computing power without their knowledge to mine cryptocurrencies. Cryp- tojacking nearly doubled the number of cyberattacks in 2018. "One of the hottest commodities is computing power tied to the emergence of cryptocurrencies," Wendi Whitmore, IBM X-Force Incident Response and Intelligence Services global lead, said in a news release. "is has led to corporate networks and consumer devices being secretly highjacked to mine for these digital currencies." 3. roughout 2018, ransomware attempts declined. In the fourth quarter of 2018, attempts to install ransomware on X-Force mon- itored devices were down 55 percent with respect to the first quarter, while cryptojacking attacks rose 450 percent in the same timeframe. 4. Targeted phishing campaigns accounted for 29 percent of cy- berattacks in 2018. Of those phishing campaigns, business email compromise scams made up 45 percent of attacks. 5. In place of malware last year, cybercriminals leveraged com- mon administration applications to gain illegal profits and evade detection in 57 percent of cyberattacks. "If we look at the drop in the use of malware, the shi away from ransomware, and the rise of targeted campaigns, all these trends tell us that ROI is a real motivating factor for cybercriminals," Ms. Whitmore said. "We see that efforts to disrupt adversaries and make systems harder to infiltrate are working. While 11.7 billion records were leaked or stolen over the last three years, leveraging stolen personally identifiable information for profit requires more knowledge and resources, motivating attackers to explore new illicit profit models to increase their ROI." Report authors concluded that organizations can increase cy- bersecurity preparedness through preventive measures such as threat hunting and risk management models. n

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