This appeared last week.
Cyber scare shuts down hospital IT systems in rural north-east
By Melissa Cunningham and Benjamin Preiss
October 23, 2019 — 5.42pm
A number of rural health services in the state’s north-east were forced to shut down their IT systems due to a malware virus.
The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed on Wednesday a virus was detected in handful of desktop computers at two health services in the Hume region and staff forced to turn of IT systems for a short period to isolate it.
A spokesman for the department refused to confirm where the infected computers were located, but it is understood IT systems at three rural health services were momentarily shut down as a precaution.
He stressed, however, patient care was not affected and IT systems were fully operational again by early Wednesday afternoon.
It is the latest cyber scare to engulf the state’s health IT systems, reigniting fears over patient information security.
Computer networks in at least seven major regional hospitals were left in lockdown after a widespread ransomware attack shut booking systems on October 1, delaying dozens of non-urgent surgeries across the state.
Barwon Health’s clinical information systems were restored last week, but staff email remains down.
Meanwhile, staff at Colac Area Health have been unable to access their emails for almost a month.
Premier Daniel Andrews conceded at the time it could take weeks to secure the affected networks and clear out the virus, but said there was no evidence to suggest personal patient information had been compromised by the ransomware attack.
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This one had been running for over three weeks.
Then we have a saga that will horrify most GP practices.
'Your whole business is basically gone': Gillian Franklin hit by $2 million cyber attack
By Cara Waters
October 23, 2019 — 8.10am
Gillian Franklin says businesses need to overhaul their online security after she almost lost her business through a cyber attack.
The founder of cosmetics business The Heat Group logged on to her business from London on a Sunday earlier this year to discover all online documents and files were missing and were replaced by a ransom note demanding payment of the equivalent of $40,000 in Bitcoin.
The Heat Group turned over around $80 million last year and distributes some of the world's biggest cosmetic brands as well as its own brands, ulta3, Billie Goat, MUD Makeup Design and OZK.O eyewear. A Heat Group product is sold every three seconds.
Ms Franklin started the business 19 years ago and has led it through the financial crisis, legal battles and Ms Franklin's own diagnosis with breast cancer.
However the cyber attack shut the entire Heat Group down and Ms Franklin feared for the company's survival.
"I was at the time very concerned and distressed but underestimated the seriousness and the impact it would have on us financially being unable to trade and being unable to have data," she said. "You are talking about the most basic things, our customer list, our price list, our supply information, our trading terms, our sales history. Your whole business is basically gone."
It's a great example where you are only as good as the people around you.
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Pretty scary what? Be careful out there it is pretty hard to avoid disaster in the long term without considerable care and planning – BEFORE it happens!
David.
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