Becker's Hospital Review

74 CIO / HEALTH IT North Korea-backed hackers target healthcare By Laura Dyrda H ackers sponsored by North Ko- rea's government have been using the Maui ransomware to target healthcare and public health services providers for the last year, ac- cording to the U.S. government. The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastruc- ture Security Agency, and Treasury Department released a joint state- ment July 6 with new information about the ransomware, which began hitting U.S. healthcare organizations in May 2021. Four details: 1. Maui ransomware, known as maui. exe, is an encryption binary designed for manual execution by a remote ac- tor using command-line interface to identify files to encrypt. 2. The ransomware encrypts files with advanced inception standard 128- bit encryption, and each file has a unique AES key and custom header, according to the report. 3. The FBI said it thinks the hackers are using the ransomware against healthcare and public health services providers because organizations are willing to pay the ransom to retrieve their files. 4. Hospitals and health systems can implement and enforce multilayer network segmentation; turn off net- work device management interfaces; and limit access to data to lessen the severity of the attacks. n iPad stolen from Kaiser Permanente hospital had info of 75,000 patients By Laura Dyrda A n iPad with protected health information was stolen from Kaiser Permanente Los Ange- les Medical Center in May, according to a July 17 report from City News Service of Southern California. Four details from the report and the Los Angeles Daily News: 1. The iPad included patient names, birth dates, medical record numbers and date of service information.There was no financial information or Social Security numbers in the iPad. 2. Kaiser Permanente said it remotely erased data from the iPad, and there hasn't been evidence of data misuse resulting from the incident. 3. The iPad was stolen from a COVID-19 testing site at the hospital, according to a report from the Los Angeles Daily News. 4. Kaiser Permanente mailed notices to the 75,000 affected patients. n Will health system CIOs be the next great CEOs? By Laura Dyrda A s health systems increasingly prior- itize digital transformation, CIOs could become the next in line to take on the role of top executive. In the last decade, the CIO role has evolved from that of a tactical IT lead installing EHR and other applications to becoming strategic business leaders who support the goals of every other department in the organization. Whether it's powering telehealth and remote patient monitoring on the clinical side to automation and data analytics efforts in the finance and human resources departments, the CIO has unique visibility into the inner workings of the organization. Suresh Gunasekaran is a prime example of a CIO turned CEO. He spent 10 years as asso- ciate vice president of health system affairs and CIO of university hospitals and clinics at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas before becoming COO and then eventual- ly taking on the CEO role at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in 2018. In March, he became the president and CEO of UCSF Health in San Francisco. Gartner and JMark, an IT service provid- er, estimated that in 2021, hospitals spent around $7,000 per employee per year on IT in the U.S. e firm estimates that by 2025, healthcare IT spend will reach $63 billion. While budgets are tight for most health sys- tems, they are still spending on technologies and applications that will support clinicians and patients. CIOs are also building out the digital teams hospitals will rely on to generate predictive analytics, deploy artificial intelligence and strengthen the infrastructure around patient engagement. Data is becoming an important currency in healthcare, and the organiza- tions that know how to use and protect data the best will be most likely to succeed. CIOs also are becoming philosophical lead- ers who motivate their teams to accomplish the organization's mission. ey are showing the IT professionals teammates their impact on patient care, and showing clinical and administrative leaders how technology can make their jobs easier and lead to better pa- tient care. Over the next decade, organizations with a focus on digital transformation and patient experience will see the value in a chief exec- utive with a CIO background. n

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