Becker's Hospital Review

36 CIO / HEALTH IT Inside UVM Medical Center's ransomware attack: 11 details By Laura Dyrda B urlington, Vt.-based UVM Medical Center revealed the cybersecurity incident it suffered in October 2020 was a ransomware attack, but the health sys- tem didn't pay, according to a report in the Burlington Free Press. During a Dec. 22 media call with reporters, health system executives described charac- teristics of the attack. Here are 11 details: 1. e attack first shut down the hospital's applications, said UVM Medical Center Chief Medical Information Officer Doug Gentile, MD. e team didn't think it was malware right away, but aer about two hours they found a file with the attackers' contact information. 2. e health system shut down its IT net- work, including the Epic EHR, aer identify- ing the file with contact information to pre- vent the spread of malware. Health system executives decided contacting the hackers and paying the ransom wouldn't save time or effort, according to the VTDigger. 3. UVM Medical Center did not contact the attackers, and there was no overt request for ransom. "We assumed the reason to contact them was to hold us at ransom," said Dr. Gentile. e health system has been working with the FBI and received permission to characterize the attack as ransomware. 4. e hackers placed malware on more than 5,000 hospital computers and laptops that encrypted files and data on 1,300 servers. UVM Medical Center had to wipe the com- puters, laptops and servers and then reinstall all data and soware, according to the report. 5. e attack occurred Oct. 28, and about one month later the health system had restored about 80 percent of UVM Medical Center's applications that power about 98 percent of functions. ere is no evidence of lingering malware on its computers and servers. 6. UVM Medical Center worked with IT se- curity company Cisco Talos to recover from the attack and has the company on retainer. e FBI also assisted in the recovery, and the governor deployed a Vermont National Guard unit to assist as well. 7. ere is no evidence that patient infor- mation was compromised during the attack, and the attack didn't spread far beyond UVM Medical Center to the system's other locations. 8. e health system furloughed or reas- signed about 300 employees who were un- able to perform their jobs when the comput- er and phone systems were down. 9. When the IT systems were taken offline, UVM Medical Center and affiliated locations canceled or postponed some services, in- cluding elective procedures and cancer treat- ments. In some instances, patients with test results could not be contacted. 10. e attack cost UVM Medical Center around $1.5 million per day in lost revenue and expenses to restore its computer systems. President and COO of UVM Medical Center Steve Leffler, MD, previously said the attack could cost about $64 million before systems are fully restored. 11. e hackers were able to compromise UVM Medical Center's security system de- spite preventive measures. "is is an arms race," Dr. Gentile said. "We all have to continually update our tools and approaches to stay ahead of the bad guys." n Why tech + empathy should be the CIO's new approach to employee health By Jackie Drees C IOs ramped up initiatives in 2020 to prioritize and support employ- ees' mental health and well-being as social distancing and isolation due to the pandemic altered the traditional workplace, according to The Wall Street Journal. "The new approach for CIOs must be technology plus empathy," Carol Juel, CIO of Synchrony Financial, told the Journal as part of the publication's annual end-of-year questionnaire for CIOs. Employees at the consumer financial ser- vices company have been offered virtual mental health counseling services and therapy as well as self-care tools like Talkspace. The pandemic introduced new challenges for mental health due to social dis- tancing, enforced isolation and new stresses tied to working from home while managing a personal life during a public health emergency. Psychologists say that being confined can take a psychological toll including depression and compulsive disorders, according to the Dec. 21 report. Other organizations such as Ernst & Young have also ramped up mental health initiatives; between March and August, more than 15,000 U.S. employees at the financial consulting and strategy company participated in virtual counsel- ing and mindfulness sessions to promote mental health and well-being. Because of the emotional struggles with the pandemic, Mountain Inc. Global Chief Technology Officer Kimberly Anstett has held monthly meetings with her tech team to check in more often and ensure her employees feel emo- tionally supported. "That gives us a common bond, a common element that we're focused on," she said, adding that it's important to have regular check-ins about difficul- ties or else employees will burn out or leave the company to find support somewhere else. n

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