Irish health service hit by cyber attack • Hacker News Board

Re: Irish health service hit by cyber attack

#101

Post by galangalalgol » Fri, May 14, 2021, 2:05 PM UTC

cgrealy wrote: post #92

galangalalgol wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if software development isn't the most technically challenging aspect of their operation? Say spaceX or a nuclear physics lab?

Or healthcare?

That too. Although if they are making medical equipment, software (if you include the algorithms, which you should) is probably their main challenge. Everyone is not a software development company, but I agree security is every developers responsibility.

Re: Irish health service hit by cyber attack

#102

Post by SamuelAdams » Fri, May 14, 2021, 2:07 PM UTC

adriancooney wrote: post #46

There's a trend of paying these ransomware attacks which are sometimes in the order of millions. Imagine if those millions were _proactively_ invested into the computer security of these systems?

The difference is it is not the attacked company that is paying the ransom, typically. It an insurance agency. So the company that was compromised still only pays $X a month, which is probably less than any million-dollar investment.

Re: Irish health service hit by cyber attack

#103

Post by hanselot » Fri, May 14, 2021, 2:10 PM UTC

gregsadetsky wrote: post #82

jl6 wrote: post #64

I have a feeling there is a very short security-hygiene checklist that, if followed, could prevent the vast majority of the ransomware attacked that we have seen in the last few years. * Keep all systems up to date with the latest patches. * Have a DR plan and test it regularly. * Make frequent backups, verify them, and keep them offline . Historically organizations have been so bad at backups that the advice has bee…

I typically work in situations where the entire data to be backed up (file storage, database) is on the order of 10-100Gb. The projects I’m working on don’t fit the high profile of a Colonial but I’d rather err on the side of safety. Is there a service that could regularly fetch data from s3 or even connect to postgres, and regularly send a physical copy of the data by mail? Does it make sense to offer airgapped back…

Implement it using homing pigeons.

Re: Irish health service hit by cyber attack

#104

Post by hanselot » Fri, May 14, 2021, 2:11 PM UTC

galangalalgol wrote: post #88

gregsadetsky wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I typically work in situations where the entire data to be backed up (file storage, database) is on the order of 10-100Gb. The projects I’m working on don’t fit the high profile of a Colonial but I’d rather err on the side of safety. Is there a service that could regularly fetch data from s3 or even connect to postgres, and regularly send a physical copy of the data by mail? Does it make sense to offer airgapped back…

If you use mail consider if your restore time will be less than your acceptable down time.

This can be avoided by offering a same-day backup restoration engineer deployed on-site with your last X backups? In fact, this sounds like exactly the kind of thing my managers would want.

Re: Irish health service hit by cyber attack

#105

Post by JohnPrine » Fri, May 14, 2021, 2:13 PM UTC

chopin wrote: post #68

londons_explore wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe that if all health records leaked tomorrow, the world would end up a better place. Sure, someone might get more expensive insurance quotes or made fun of for having ADHD, HIV or acne treatment... But I think that would be outweighed by health benefits by combing the data for correlations and causations that have been unidentified in the past. Being able to shut down things that are poisoning millions of peo…

The upsides may come. The downsides will come. I am pessimistic on this one.

You don't think the upsides of releasing the largest and most complete dataset on human health in history would be inevitable? I'd say the upsides and downsides would both certainly come

Re: Irish health service hit by cyber attack

#106

Post by Enginerrrd » Fri, May 14, 2021, 2:17 PM UTC

tgv wrote: post #42

Quarrelsome wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

apparently the traceability of digital currencies is proving effective in tracking down criminals that might otherwise operate in just cash.

So, did they get the people that r'wared the US pipeline then?

If they haven't yet, give it a little time. Fucking with US oil supplies is a really good way to get the opportunity to feel the full engine of US intelligence and military might.

Re: Irish health service hit by cyber attack

#107

Post by argvargc » Fri, May 14, 2021, 2:19 PM UTC

dalbasal wrote: post #47

argvargc wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not making an argument "for progress" at all. I actually 100% agree that we are allowed to, and should, discuss the ramifications of any kind of change. My point is only that the original comment didn't attempt make any argument, other than the reduced one I outlined.

That's not really a reduction... more of a random association to a generality you feel strongly about. You "reduced" difficult to trace digital currencies to " any kind of positive development in personal sovereignty. " No need to keep defending a mistake. Just reread your own comment and the OP's. Respond to the comment itself, not other discussions you've had on the topic. If you think the argument implies somethin…

I genuinely appreciate your comment and the direction it provides - it's rare to see this when people disagree.

When re-reading the OP's comment just now, I just can't interpret it any other way other than "see! crypto bad". Maybe I'm missing something.

I'd accept that my responding, effectively in-kind ("see! your position bad"), isn't particularly useful other than potentially alerting them to the fact (my intention), and I'd no doubt do better to provide some examples of benefits at least (as I see the current top-voted reply did, that is otherwise identical to mine).

My admission of that however, does not indemnify the original commenter - at least, in terms of my interpretation of their comment, which is really all I can be responsible for.

Re: Irish health service hit by cyber attack

#108

Post by steve_gh » Fri, May 14, 2021, 2:22 PM UTC

ransom1538 wrote: post #87

xienze wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bigger IMO problem with ransomware attacks isn't necessarily that they're holding your data hostage, it's that they can and will publish it. You might be able to tell them to kiss your ass because you have backups, but then they'll publish that information. It's a bit more of a rock-and-a-hard-place situation than most people realize.

Eh. From my understanding the people that pay do fine. As sick as it is, these crews following through is good for business. These crews are making tons of cash. If word gets out they don't unencrypt and do publicly publish - people will just stop paying: period. Hell. Some of these crews have a help desk. [1] https://www.macworld.co.uk/cmsdata/features/3659100/how_to_r...

This is a public health service. It's paid for out of taxation.

Re: Irish health service hit by cyber attack

#109

Post by jupiter909 » Fri, May 14, 2021, 2:23 PM UTC

One can do ZFS snapshots so one does not need do insanely huge backups all the time. Just transfer off the diffs as needed. If an attack happens it's pretty easy to roll-back to a known good state. It's also not that complex to set some process in place that does random checksum verification of some files to trigger an alarm that such an attack has taken place. It is really perplexing me that very large institutes don't do this

Re: Irish health service hit by cyber attack

#110

Post by trompetenaccoun » Fri, May 14, 2021, 2:23 PM UTC

GrumpyNl wrote: post #60

kasperni wrote: post #2

Ransomware: Another great "feature" of difficult to trace digital currencies.

I have always understood that all payments were traceable with digital currencies. Am I wrong?

Not all cryptocurrencies but it's true for something like Bitcoin. The problem is you can trace the transaction to the attackers wallet, but where does it go from there? It might sit there, they might throw the money in a tumbler, maybe they sell it for cash... If or when it shows up in a KYC-compliant exchange it could have changed hands many times already and it might not be possible to say anything about the actual criminal at that point.