Becker's Hospital Review

52 CIO / HEALTH IT Russian ransomware gang posts more Lehigh Valley patient photos to dark web By Giles Bruce R ussian ransomware gang BlackChat has posted more photos of patients from Allentown, Pa.-based Lehigh Valley Health Network to the dark web, The (Allentown) Morning Call reported March 10. "We are evaluating exactly what information has been posted as we simultaneously continue to analyze the content involved," a health system spokesperson said in a statement to the news outlet. BlackCat previously posted three screenshots of cancer patients undergoing treatment — reportedly nude from the waist up — as well as seven documents with patient information March 7 after the health system refused to pay the group following a February ransomware hack. "We expect this shameful tactic to continue," Lehigh Valley's statement read. "As we've previously said, this despicable act is executed by cybercriminals trying to make money by taking advantage of our patients and colleagues caring for patients and we condemn this reprehensible exploitation." This time around, BlackCat uploaded a 132-gigabyte file purportedly containing patient data and photos and threatened to release more every week until the ransom is paid, cybersecurity analyst Brett Callow told the news outlet. Still, he said, Lehigh Valley is doing the right thing by not paying. "Ransomware attacks happen for one reason and one reason only: They're profitable," Mr. Callow told the newspaper. "If no organizations paid, there would be no more ransomware attacks." n 'That is exactly how we treated the patient': ChatGPT update's medical expertise surprises physicians By Giles Bruce A ChatGPT update released March 14 has been stunning physicians with its ability to deliver sound medical advice, e New York Times reported. Anil Gehi, MD, a cardiologist and associate professor of medicine at Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health, described the health history of a patient, using advanced medical terminology, to the artificial intelligence chatbot and asked it how he should treat the person, according to the March 14 story. "at is exactly how we treated the patient," he said of ChatGPT's answer. Experts told the newspaper the new GPT-4 technology is more precise, accurate and descriptive than its predecessor, which OpenAI released in November. However, the chatbot is still prone to "hallucination" and making things up. n Anonymous call informs Virginia hospital of data breach By Naomi Diaz A n anonymous individual called Norfolk, Va.-based Sentara Healthcare to notify the hospital that a PDF copy of a Medicare remittance report for Sentara's lab services was uploaded to an Adobe Acrobat website. On Dec. 19, an individual called the Sentara Compliance Hotline to notify the hospital of the uploaded report. e hospital then visited the site and confirmed that the PDF was from its Sentara's lab services, according to a breach notification from Sentara. According to the hospital, the PDF was uploaded on Oct. 17 by an individual who was an employee of its medical billing vendor Coronis Health. On Dec. 20, Coronis Health removed the file from the Adobe site, fired the employee and began retraining employees on how to handle protected health information. e report contained the protected health information of 741 patients. Some of the information in the report included patients' names, Medicare ID numbers, dates of service, Current Procedural Terminology codes, the last four digits of their account numbers, the location of service and any outstanding balances on their accounts. Sentara said it is notifying all affected individuals. n

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