JFL Lost Up to 800000 Weekly After Cyberattack CEO Says No Patient or Staff Data Was Compromised
pBREAKING NEWSppTo save articles or get newsletters alerts or recommendations all freeppDont have an account Sign UpppAlready have an account Log InppThe April cyberattack that crippled the Juan F Luis Hospitals electronic systems cost the facility between 750000 and 800000 a week according to CEO Darlene A Baptiste who says the breach forced months of manual operations and delayed billing but did not result in any stolen patient or staff data
ppSpeaking Wednesday during the hospitals Conversations on Care Community Dialogue town hall Ms Baptiste detailed how the attack which occurred on April 26 forced JFL offline for nearly five months and prompted a complete rebuild of its technology infrastructureppMs Baptiste said the hospital was unable to submit electronic bills for months forcing staff to revert to manual paper billing and resulting in major cash flow delays Were thinking somewhere between 750000 to 800000 a week thats been lost she said before correcting herself to restate Its not lost Its not readily accessible in real time because were not submitting our electronic bills in a timely mannerppThe CEO acknowledged the toll on staff morale and operations noting that being offline for five months has really had an unprecedented impact on us not only on morale and the energy that is expended to go through it but the economicsppRecounting the incident Ms Baptiste said the attack struck suddenly and required an immediate system lockdown I could tell you the exact time 1023 that morning everything shut down We just locked up Locked it down she saidppThe attackers gained access through two local servers exploiting what JFLs IT team later described as an overlooked vulnerability We had everything guarded the windows the doors everything was sealed Everything was tested But what happened We had what we call a doggy door and we didnt protect the doggy door and they came into there she explainedppAccording to Ms Baptiste the threat agents infiltrated one drive within the hospitals network but did not compromise personal data They found that the threat was within one drive so they could have had access to everything else but they just went after this particular drive she said No personal data from patients or staff was compromised during that particular incidentppAfter the breach JFLs IT team working with federal partners and outside cybersecurity experts performed a full terminalbyterminal sweep of the system All staff went in terminal by terminal and did a clean sweep of everything Ms Baptiste said The federal investigation remains ongoing with final reports still pendingppDuring the recovery hospital operations reverted entirely to manual downtime procedures a paperbased system that replaced the digital records network All our systems have been manual since the cyberattack in April 26 of this year she saidppIn September JFL began its gradual return to digital operations Since then weve had a cutover it means that we have been in the cloud up until September 17 and were slowly coming back via clusters that are grouped by specialty she explainedppAt present 80 to 85 percent of staff have regained access to Meditech the hospitals electronic health record EHR system while restoration of the financial services and business office clusters is underwayppThe cyberattack led to a complete modernization of JFLs IT systems with significant investments in cloud security redundancy and realtime threat monitoringppIt gives us redundancy so now we have backups to the backup to the backup Ms Baptiste said We have partners along with us that also look at having not only the redundancy but a safety operations center that looks at these threats on a continuumppThese improvements she explained ensure constant oversight and reporting There are reports that come out on a regular basis that tell us the threats that are readily available in real time and we can address them based on the trending across the globe she saidppWhile acknowledging the expense Ms Baptiste said the overhaul was essential It is a pricey endeavor but we have learned our lesson literally the hard way she said We cannot afford to go down this road againppThe hospitals new cloud system also provides greater resilience than its former local servers offering multiple layers of protection God forbid knocking on everything we cannot afford to go down this road again she saidppThe CEO praised the hospitals employees for keeping services operational despite the crisis We had crews that did chart captures and entries with 15 computer terminals working 247 entering and registering patients keeping operations afloat she said At some point we even had four different shifts working around the clock to make sure we had the organization stabilizedppWorking without digital tools was a major challenge she admitted When youre used to the electronic system and now you have to go to paper its a very heavy lift for our entire staff nursing and physicians alike she said thanking staff for their endurance and commitment to patient careppMs Baptiste described the cyberattack as a painful but transformative experience that has made the hospital stronger and better prepared We found it more prudent for us just to go ahead and rebuild our system and now were coming back stronger Thats our plan right now with a heavy ticket price but its well worth it she saidppAlthough the final federal report on the incident has yet to be released Ms Baptiste said the hospitals new security infrastructure provides continuous protection and redundancy We cannot afford to go through this again she saidppThe attack she added was a wakeup call that underscored both the importance of cybersecurity and the resilience of JFLs workforce It was a hard but valuable lesson she said Weve come out of it strongerppThe Virgin Islands Consortium was founded in 2014 by Ernice Gilbert and covers US Virgin Islands and Caribbean news politics opinion business entertainment culture and much more Its mission is to offer solid and indepth reporting and breaking news coverage on stories affecting the Caribbean while providing both prerecorded and live video content including interviews shows along with Caribbean carnivals and festivals to its usersppCOPYRIGHT 20142021 VI Consortium All Rights Reservedp
ppSpeaking Wednesday during the hospitals Conversations on Care Community Dialogue town hall Ms Baptiste detailed how the attack which occurred on April 26 forced JFL offline for nearly five months and prompted a complete rebuild of its technology infrastructureppMs Baptiste said the hospital was unable to submit electronic bills for months forcing staff to revert to manual paper billing and resulting in major cash flow delays Were thinking somewhere between 750000 to 800000 a week thats been lost she said before correcting herself to restate Its not lost Its not readily accessible in real time because were not submitting our electronic bills in a timely mannerppThe CEO acknowledged the toll on staff morale and operations noting that being offline for five months has really had an unprecedented impact on us not only on morale and the energy that is expended to go through it but the economicsppRecounting the incident Ms Baptiste said the attack struck suddenly and required an immediate system lockdown I could tell you the exact time 1023 that morning everything shut down We just locked up Locked it down she saidppThe attackers gained access through two local servers exploiting what JFLs IT team later described as an overlooked vulnerability We had everything guarded the windows the doors everything was sealed Everything was tested But what happened We had what we call a doggy door and we didnt protect the doggy door and they came into there she explainedppAccording to Ms Baptiste the threat agents infiltrated one drive within the hospitals network but did not compromise personal data They found that the threat was within one drive so they could have had access to everything else but they just went after this particular drive she said No personal data from patients or staff was compromised during that particular incidentppAfter the breach JFLs IT team working with federal partners and outside cybersecurity experts performed a full terminalbyterminal sweep of the system All staff went in terminal by terminal and did a clean sweep of everything Ms Baptiste said The federal investigation remains ongoing with final reports still pendingppDuring the recovery hospital operations reverted entirely to manual downtime procedures a paperbased system that replaced the digital records network All our systems have been manual since the cyberattack in April 26 of this year she saidppIn September JFL began its gradual return to digital operations Since then weve had a cutover it means that we have been in the cloud up until September 17 and were slowly coming back via clusters that are grouped by specialty she explainedppAt present 80 to 85 percent of staff have regained access to Meditech the hospitals electronic health record EHR system while restoration of the financial services and business office clusters is underwayppThe cyberattack led to a complete modernization of JFLs IT systems with significant investments in cloud security redundancy and realtime threat monitoringppIt gives us redundancy so now we have backups to the backup to the backup Ms Baptiste said We have partners along with us that also look at having not only the redundancy but a safety operations center that looks at these threats on a continuumppThese improvements she explained ensure constant oversight and reporting There are reports that come out on a regular basis that tell us the threats that are readily available in real time and we can address them based on the trending across the globe she saidppWhile acknowledging the expense Ms Baptiste said the overhaul was essential It is a pricey endeavor but we have learned our lesson literally the hard way she said We cannot afford to go down this road againppThe hospitals new cloud system also provides greater resilience than its former local servers offering multiple layers of protection God forbid knocking on everything we cannot afford to go down this road again she saidppThe CEO praised the hospitals employees for keeping services operational despite the crisis We had crews that did chart captures and entries with 15 computer terminals working 247 entering and registering patients keeping operations afloat she said At some point we even had four different shifts working around the clock to make sure we had the organization stabilizedppWorking without digital tools was a major challenge she admitted When youre used to the electronic system and now you have to go to paper its a very heavy lift for our entire staff nursing and physicians alike she said thanking staff for their endurance and commitment to patient careppMs Baptiste described the cyberattack as a painful but transformative experience that has made the hospital stronger and better prepared We found it more prudent for us just to go ahead and rebuild our system and now were coming back stronger Thats our plan right now with a heavy ticket price but its well worth it she saidppAlthough the final federal report on the incident has yet to be released Ms Baptiste said the hospitals new security infrastructure provides continuous protection and redundancy We cannot afford to go through this again she saidppThe attack she added was a wakeup call that underscored both the importance of cybersecurity and the resilience of JFLs workforce It was a hard but valuable lesson she said Weve come out of it strongerppThe Virgin Islands Consortium was founded in 2014 by Ernice Gilbert and covers US Virgin Islands and Caribbean news politics opinion business entertainment culture and much more Its mission is to offer solid and indepth reporting and breaking news coverage on stories affecting the Caribbean while providing both prerecorded and live video content including interviews shows along with Caribbean carnivals and festivals to its usersppCOPYRIGHT 20142021 VI Consortium All Rights Reservedp
