Hackers Target Victorian Heart Clinic
Key points:
- If you don’t have anti-virus or an off-site backup solution, your business is at serious risk of infection
- Cabrini was recently a victim of a serious cyber hack, losing access to 15,000 patient records
- They met the demands of the cyber-criminal with an unknown sum of money, however still do not have access to many files
About the hack
Australia needs to wake up.
We are a target.
We must improve our security, or this will go on.
At the moment, it appears the crooks are well ahead.”
– Neil Mitchell
The hack is believed to have originated in Russia or North Korea and exposed medical files for more than 15,000 patients. Reports from The Age staff were unable to access 15,000 patient records for over three weeks. However, some encrypted files remain inaccessible. In addition, personal details and sensitive medical records are in the hands of criminals.
Without access to your files, can your business survive?
If your answer is no, well neither could itro! Below are two important questions to ask yourself if your business couldn’t survive:
1. Do you have an active anti-virus license?
- Yes – great: itro recommends for you to call your IT Provider and double-check your license is active and the renewal date. A lot of businesses anti-virus licenses lapse without them realising!
- No – this is a serious concern. We urge you to resolve this as soon as possible to ensure the safety of your data. itro is happy to organise an engineer to come on-site and check this for you.
Why is anti-virus important?
- Antivirus software is the “bouncer” at the front-door of your computer. It is designed to prevent, search for, detect and remove software viruses or other malicious software. If you do not have any anti-virus software, your data and systems are at serious risk of infection. It’s as simple as one employee browsing an insecure website and clicking a malicious link. In addition, are you aware you must report any breach or loss of data to the privacy commissioner AND notify your customers and may have to pay a fine? More information here. Without any anti-virus, your systems are open to threats.
- Our itro Service Core includes anti-virus subscription along with proactive monitoring and improved support.
2. Do you have an active backup and disaster recovery solution?
- Yes – great. Again, itro recommends contacting your IT Provider and checking what is and what isn’t backed up daily
- No –A backup is your safety net for when data is lost in any of the above circumstances.
Why is backup important?
- If your business experiences a cyberattack, hardware fails, user error, power in your office fails, your office floods or burns down, how quickly can your business recover? And more importantly, at what cost?
As an IT provider, we urge you to take steps immediately to resolve any doubts or issues. We would love to send an engineer on-site and check your setup.
If you are serious about securing your business, ensure your business is being cyber smart with these five steps.