A DENTAL INDUSTRY SECRET: No One Wants to Share!

Posted on June 7, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Darrell Pruitt DDS

***

***

Ransomware is getting worse, not better.

One doesn’t see this in dental literature, but ransomware is not going away. It is getting worse. “Ransomware Victim Count Increased by 75% in 2023” By Steve Alder for The HIPAA Journal, Jun 4, 2024. https://www.hipaajournal.com/ransomware-victim-count-increased-by-75-in-2023/

A new report from the Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant suggests several reasons for the increase in attacks. “First, there has been a resetting of the cybe rcriminal ecosystem after a tumultuous year in 2022, an influx of new actors conducting attacks, new partnerships between existing groups, and members of disrupted, prolific ransomware groups such as Conti starting up their own RaaS operations. While the attacks in 2023 largely followed the same patterns as the previous year, there were some notable changes with several groups trialing new tactics, techniques, and procedures.

For example, to increase the pressure on victims to pay, attacks on healthcare providers saw extortion demands issued to patients whose data were stolen, threatening to publish their medical data if they did not personally pay a ransom. The ALPHV group created a searchable database to make stolen data more accessible, and threats were issued to report attacks on publicly traded companies to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).”

Imagine how ransomware would affect your practice if the extortion scheme bypassed you to directly threaten your patients – and blamed you for not paying the “reasonable” ransom demand.

COMMENTS APPRECIATED

Thank You

***

***

Filed under: "Doctors Only", Career Development, Experts Invited, Information Technology, Pruitt's Platform | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

DAILY UPDATE: Nvidia, and Pharmacy Cyber Security Attack as Stock Markets Roar Back!

Posted on February 23, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

***

Stock Market - Homecare24

***

Big tech companies are continuing to pour cash into artificial intelligence at a breakneck pace. And based Bion the earnings update Wednesday from Nvidia, much of it is going to that chip maker. “This last year, we’ve seen generative AI really becoming a whole new application space, a whole new way of doing computing,” Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s co-founder and chief executive, said Wednesday. “A whole new industry is being formed, and that’s driving our growth.”

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource

Pharmacies across the country are reporting delays to prescription orders due to a cyberattack against one of the nation’s largest health-care technology companies. Change Healthcare, a company handling orders and patient payments throughout the U.S., first noticed the “cyber security issue” affecting its networks Wednesday morning on the East Coast. 

Here’s where the major benchmarks ended:

  • The S&P 500 index rose 105.23 points (2.1%) to 5,087.03; the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 456.87 points (1.2%) to 39,069.11; the NASDAQ Composite rallied 460.75 points (3%) to 16,041.62.
  • The 10-year Treasury note yield (TNX) was little changed at 4.323%.
  • The CBOE Volatility Index® (VIX) fell 0.84 to 14.50.

Nvidia sparked a 5% rally in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) and a 3% gain in the NASDQ-100® (NDX), both of which ended at all-time highs. Consumer discretionary shares were also among the strongest sectors Thursday. The small-cap Russell 2000® Index (RUT) rose 1% and halted a three-day slide.

According to Joe Mazzola, director of trading and education at Schwab, Nvidia had a “profound effect” at both the sector and index level, partly reflecting its market value, which is nearing $2 trillion. Nvidia is now the third largest company behind Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL).

***

***

COMMENTS APPRECIATED

Thank You

***

***

Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", Accounting, Breaking News, Drugs and Pharma, Ethics, Experts Invited, Financial Planning, Investing | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

CYBER ATTACK: Closes First Hospital

Posted on July 20, 2023 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

***

***

The healthcare industry cut 97% more jobs in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, according to a July 6 report from executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray, & Christmas.

The report mentioned an unnamed hospital that closed last month due to a cyberattack, which likely contributed to the healthcare job cuts. In June, St. Margaret’s Health in Spring Valley, Illinois, closed, and was the first hospital to publicly attribute a cyberattack to its closure, NBC News reported.

Market and economic conditions were cited as the reasons for the majority of job cuts across all US industries; the report didn’t detail the reasons for healthcare job cuts specifically, except for the NBC News Report.

***

MORE: https://www.routledge.com/Risk-Management-Liability-Insurance-and-Asset-Protection-Strategies-for/Marcinko-Hetico/p/book/9781498725989

***

***

COMMENTS APPRECIATED

Thank You

***

Filed under: Breaking News, Experts Invited, Health Insurance, iMBA, Inc., Information Technology, Risk Management | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a comment »