Ransomware at blood donation service OneBlood, systems up and running again
After Synnovis and Octapharma, OneBlood has now also been affected by a ransomware incident, but is on the road to recovery.
OneBloods Blutspendebus in Florida
(Image: Peter Titmuss/Shutterstock.com)
After OneBlood fell victim to a ransomware attack, some of its critical software systems are up and running again, such as the electronic registration of donors. OneBlood, a non-profit organization that supplies blood and blood products to healthcare providers in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina, has reported this. The labeling of blood products will initially continue to be done manually.
Whether and to what extent data has been leaked is still being investigated. According to the company, it is working with cyber security experts to improve IT security. The blood supply for patients and data protection have "top priority" together with the blood supply.
The incident is affecting patient care, as more than 350 hospitals receive supplies from OneBlood. "Despite the challenges, we have maintained operations during the ransomware event. Blood drives are taking place and our donor centers remain open," said OneBlood spokesperson Susan Forbes. It is not yet clear when OneBlood's systems will be fully restored.
Supply of blood products restricted
The American Hospital Association (AHA) and the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Health-ISAC) have published an updated notice highlighting three recent ransomware attacks by cybercriminals on OneBlood, Synnovis and Octapharma. They strongly recommend that hospitals and other healthcare organizations include vital and mission-critical third-party providers in their risk management and contingency management plans to ensure resilience and redundancy in modern digitally connected healthcare.
John Riggi, National Advisor for Cybersecurity and Risk at the AHA, emphasized the importance of these measures and called on the government to do more to protect and assist in the event of an attack. He noted that such attacks are increasingly targeting healthcare to cause maximum disruption on a regional and systemic level.
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