Joining the trail of cybersecurity victims from the health sector, the latest victim comes from Alaska, USA. Reportedly, Alaska Health Department suffered a malware attack that forced it to pull the website offline.
Alaska Health Department Malware Attack
Through a press release, Alaska officials have disclosed malware attack on the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) website. The attack, in turn, caused the website to go offline as the officials started investigations.
Precisely, the malware not only disrupted the DHSS website. Rather it also affected many other services. The press release states the full list of services impacted by the incident, that include the State of Alaska Vital Records System, DHSS Epidemiological Bulletins, SAGE – System for Schools to Report Vaccine Data to Public Health, and others.
Currently, the officials have not disclosed exact technical details about how the incident had happened and who were the attackers. Also, it remains unclear if it was a malware attack or, according to what the signs hint, a ransomware attack.
Yet, what they disclosed is that the DHSS website had to go offline on May 17, 2021, evening. Even at the time of writing this article, the website remains offline.
The notice explains that the site will remain offline until the investigations go on to bring up more details.
Nonetheless, the COVID-19 vaccination-related service may continue as they remained unimpacted.
Some services, such as COVID-19 vaccine appointment scheduling and the data dashboards, are hosted by outside sources and can still be accessed through covid19.alaska.gov.
The officials have pledged to share more details with the public.
Recently, a serious ransomware attack from the Conti gang targeted the Irish health sector as well. Following this attack, the FBI also issued a flash alert revealing more of such attacks targeting at least 16 different services across the US, including the 911 dispatch centers and police.
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