Not identified publicly yet, but very severe apparently this virus forced a hospital system wide computer shutdown to new admissions.
Life threatening emergencies were admitted by filling out forms by hand. Minor cases were sent elsewhere. The two hospitals in the system were both affected.
Labs and imaging results were hand transported from X-Ray, and the laboratories to the various Nursing Units. The computers were shut down
rapidly, because of fear of spread. The virus was characterized as especially aggressive. It was on the computers for two days and after remedial action was taken, the
system remained down another day to verify no reactivation. The Hospital stated no harm came to patients and no information was stolen. From the degree of aggressiveness
and rapid spread, there has been some speculation that it might be a ‘Conficker’ worm variant.
Well, this isn’t really a new axis of attack. Three hospitals were attacked in London, England in 2008 by the ‘Mytob’ worm which attacked the system by posing as a message from the system administrator.
Hospitals using Windows based systems routinely get infected, but not to such a serious degree as to cause system wide shutdowns for such a long time. So far defense and intelligence assets have been attacked as well as industrial targets. Attacking a hospital is extremely serious as it endangers lives. I hope the attackers are found and dealt with harshly; however, no one has announced the source of the attack yet.
I doubt we’ll be seeing fewer attacks in the future.
Source:
http://news.techworld.com/security/3324420/hospital-turns-away-patients-after-virus-downs-network/