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FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

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Re: FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

#241

Post by EQYV »

tremon wrote: post #230
Mary-Jane wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good God no! I get where you're coming from but you've clearly not worked in this field. Heath Care IT is a disaster that was CREATED by regulation written in a different era of computing. The whole industry is terrified of making changes because of the multi-year hoops they're forced to jump through to release them; you don't flog a horse for stopping when you pull on the reins. The correct solution is to change the…

I don't think the OP was advocating for punishing the hospitals, but rather the ransomware authors.

This is correct.

Re: FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

#243

Post by sgift »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #169
jonnybgood wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you speaking about Syria and Libya today that was a result of the Arab Spring in multiple Arab countries, which took everyone including CIA by surprise? Do you really believe the CIA is capable of something on that scale? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring

If it took the CIA by surprise, why were Syria and Libya on the short list of countries that General Wesley Clark identified as regime change targets in 2007, three years before the Arab Spring? https://youtu.be/9RC1Mepk_Sw

Because that's a wish list vs. a "we assume this will happen/are actively working on it list"? I'm pretty sure the CIA also shortlisted every Eastern Bloc state in the 80s for regime change. Doesn't mean the SU fell because of the CIA.

Re: FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

#244

Post by Siira »

Thorrez wrote: post #115
haswell wrote: post #8

This is not what we need in these final chapters of 2020 with COVID cases spiking. > Charles Carmakal, senior vice president for Mandiant, told Reuters that UNC1878 is one of most brazen, heartless, and disruptive threat actors he’s observed over the course of his career. This is what terrorism looks like in 2020. Horrifying, terrifying, disgusting.

>terrorism Isn't ransomware profit-motivated? I thought with terrorism the goal was fear rather than profit.

It can be a source of revenue for terrorists though.

Re: FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

#245

Post by onetimemanytime »

haswell wrote: post #8

This is not what we need in these final chapters of 2020 with COVID cases spiking. > Charles Carmakal, senior vice president for Mandiant, told Reuters that UNC1878 is one of most brazen, heartless, and disruptive threat actors he’s observed over the course of his career. This is what terrorism looks like in 2020. Horrifying, terrifying, disgusting.

>>This is not what we need in these final chapters of 2020 with COVID cases spiking.

That's a play "why do you rob the banks". Some choice those hospitals have

Re: FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

#246

Post by wongarsu »

Thorrez wrote: post #115
haswell wrote: post #8

This is not what we need in these final chapters of 2020 with COVID cases spiking. > Charles Carmakal, senior vice president for Mandiant, told Reuters that UNC1878 is one of most brazen, heartless, and disruptive threat actors he’s observed over the course of his career. This is what terrorism looks like in 2020. Horrifying, terrifying, disgusting.

>terrorism Isn't ransomware profit-motivated? I thought with terrorism the goal was fear rather than profit.

The goal of terrorism is always political. Fear is the tool used by terrorism to reach the goal. Fear is a defining feature, but just means to an end.

As others have noted: while this instance is unlikely to be terrorism, this is a tool that is useful in terrorism and has been used as such in the past.

Re: FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

#247

Post by Dahoon »

EQYV wrote: post #75

If this attack results in actual loss of life, I firmly believe the US should ensure that there are real-world physical consequences for these criminals. They cannot be described as anything less than the worst humanity has to offer. A failure to respond with meaningful and severe consequences for those responsible (assuming this is attack can be confidently attributed to a particular threat actor) opens the floodgat…

So should Russia do the same? After all the US did officially declare a cyberwar against Russia. If this ends up being attributed to Russia they have a very real defence in pointing the finger at the US and saying "You started it!"

Re: FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

#248

Post by peterlk »

thomastjeffery wrote: post #237
Mary-Jane wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The regulatory environment in the Heath Care industry is based on the premise that any change risks patient safety. Changing a single line of CSS literally takes 6 months to test, validate, document and get approval for, so everyone's afraid to change a thing. You can't automate anything because the current process survived 7 audits and regulatory is afraid changing it might raise an alarm. You'd be stunned at the nu…

I think the obvious solution would be to invest in a new open-source end-to-end infrastructure that could be thoroughly audited then implemented by hospitals everywhere. Of course, that would need a sizeable investment of both money and time, but it would almost definitely be more efficient than updating one component at a time.

My armchair analysis of the obvious solution is to airgap all these systems. Perhaps this would require some new infrastructure in hospitals, but it would add a very difficult-to-penetrate layer.

Re: FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

#249

Post by rapnie »

tpolm wrote: post #112
xvector wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If US citizens die due to this, I am 100% down with bringing the full might of our military down on the state/group that did this. No mercy.

And how are you going to identify the state/group that did this? Believing "experts"? Oh, that worked just fine previously https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Counci...

According to the media hackers are either Russian, Chinese, Iranian or North Korean, so that limits the group of possible culprits somewhat. /s

Re: FBI, DHS, HHS Warn of Imminent Ransomware Threat Against U.S. Hospitals

#250

Post by Dahoon »

xvector wrote: post #77
EQYV wrote: post #75

If this attack results in actual loss of life, I firmly believe the US should ensure that there are real-world physical consequences for these criminals. They cannot be described as anything less than the worst humanity has to offer. A failure to respond with meaningful and severe consequences for those responsible (assuming this is attack can be confidently attributed to a particular threat actor) opens the floodgat…

If US citizens die due to this, I am 100% down with bringing the full might of our military down on the state/group that did this. No mercy.

So war against the US government who is to blame for the 1990's IT infrastructure of the whole health system?
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