Healthcare CIOs fear (and fend off) ransomware threats amid pandemic

Mt. San Rafael Hospital thwarted a ransomware attack on one of its sister facilities earlier this year before anything could be compromised. The organization is still working through the details of the hack, says CIO Michael Archuleta, whose hospital is part of the BridgeCare Health Network, which includes five hospitals in Colorado. “It could have been a bad issue if we didn’t have the automation and intelligence to catch and stop it,” says Archuleta. The vast majority of ransomware stems from a malicious email attachment that employees open and unwittingly propagate across a network. Attackers can use this exploit to lock up systems and demand payment to release them.