Monthly Breach Deets - UF Health Central Florida Ransomware

For this week's Breach Deets, UF Health Central in Florida experienced a cyber-attack that led to a PHI breach. According to HIPAA Journal, the breach affected 700,981 individuals when hackers first accessed their system's network. It was later determined ransomware was involved and the attackers demanded $5 million in ransom.

It contained the following PHI:

• First and last names
• Addresses
• Health insurance
• Social Security numbers
• Patient account numbers
• Medical record numbers
• Dates of birth

How this could have been prevented

Ransomware is a huge threat and will continue to be. Unfortunately, this type of breach won't be going anywhere anytime soon. Please take the prevention tips seriously so we're not reading your names next.

VGM Forbin would be happy to consult you on security software and other ransomware security needs for your facility. Let us know if you'd like to schedule a free consultation with our experts today!

1. Keep your operating systems up-to-date
2. Awareness - make your employees aware of how easily this can happen and have them go through ransomware attack training to test their awareness
3. Don't click on links or open suspicious email attachments - educate your employees on how to identify suspicious email attachments and links
4. Keep your computers up-to-date
5. Use a VPN Network instead of public Wi-Fi