Region 7 Hospital Librarians: What Medical Librarians Need to Know about Ransomware Attacks

Abstract

Region 7 develops webinars for a hospital librarian audience. Topics are determined by the Hospital Libraries Advisory Group (HLAG). Each webinar highlights a topic of concern to hospital librarians. Region 7 will identify subject experts to provide instruction either through WebEx or on-site at UMass Chan Medical School. The sessions begin with introduction of topic and subject expert, include discussion on the impact on library management, and conclude with time for questions and answers. Whenever possible, the sessions will be recorded. On January 11, 2018, Hancock Health in Greenfield, Indiana experienced a ransomware attack on the hospital's information systems. The hackers used compromised account credentials to target a server located in the emergency IT backup facility. This caused havoc with critical information systems. The University of Vermont Health Network in Burlington, Vermont was attacked on October 8, 2020, with malware infecting hospital information systems. In this webinar, Steve Long, CEO of Hancock Health, talked about his experiences with mobilizing disaster response procedures. Alice Stokes, Research and Education Librarian at the University of Vermont, addressed ways that library services are impacted by ransomware attacks.