{"id":2452946,"date":"2020-01-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=318751"},"modified":"2020-01-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T07:00:00","slug":"aspen-valley-hospital-able-to-stave-off-holiday-hijack-by-ransomware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-valley-hospital-able-to-stave-off-holiday-hijack-by-ransomware\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen Valley Hospital able to stave off holiday hijack by \u2018ransomware\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Aspen Valley Hospital <\/a>went into incident command mode for about 36 hours over the Christmas holiday when a malicious software unsuccessfully attempted to get into the system through a third-party vendor.<\/p>\n

If not for the quick reaction time of the IT department, the hospital\u2019s operation could have been hijacked, according to Dave Ressler, CEO of AVH.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was ransomware<\/a> where they were trying to encrypt and shut us down and make the vendor pay a ransom,\u201d he said Monday. \u201cWe were collateral; it wasn\u2019t a direct hit on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of AVH\u2019s robust IT system, which prevents and detects software breaches, the IT department was alerted to the virus as soon as it hit the hospital\u2019s computers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe IT department reacted immediately \u2026 within minutes,\u201d Ressler said. \u201cThey shut everything down.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was in the early morning Dec. 25 when AVH shifted to \u201cdowntime procedures\u201d in which operations were paper-based.<\/p>\n

AVH\u2019s main system, Meditec, which tracks patients, was operational by about 5 p.m. Dec. 26.<\/p>\n

Downtime procedures take longer because it requires people to transmit information on paper rather than computers, but AVH was able to maintain patient care even during busy times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s because we had the right preventative measures and our ability to respond quickly,\u201d Ressler said. \u201cI can\u2019t say enough about the IT department\u2019s dedication and professionalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really proved their mettle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ressler said the systems in AVH\u2019s clinics were not affected but other things such as internal email could have been.<\/p>\n

Lingering effects continued internally for a few days before everything went back to normal, Ressler noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to do a sweep of all the systems and that takes a lot of time,\u201d he said. \u201cAt no time was our patient information compromised.\u201d<\/p>\n

Downtime procedures and incident command have been put in place before, including during the 2018 wildfire near Basalt when electricity was compromised, or when there is a threat to the phone or internet systems.<\/p>\n

But as Ressler pointed out, \u201cWe have never had a large-scale attack like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Incident command has the hospital function differently by assigning certain individuals to take on additional responsibilities to oversee the operation.<\/p>\n

The incident commander was Jennifer Slaughter, AVH\u2019s chief marketing officer, who also praised the IT department.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were complete professionals and got us out relatively unscathed,\u201d she said, adding the entire hospital staff rose to the occasion. \u201cIt was amazing that they pulled together.\u201d<\/p>\n

csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aspen Valley Hospital went into incident command mode for about 36 hours over the Christmas holiday when a malicious software unsuccessfully attempted to get into the system through a third-party vendor. If not for the quick reaction time of the IT department, the hospital\u2019s operation could have been hijacked, according to Dave Ressler, CEO of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 22:16:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}