New York Blood Center has been hit by a cyber attack that has forced the organization to cancel vital community blood drives. The cyber attack has significantly impacted donations.
The attack comes just one week after the organization had declared a “blood emergency” after a “a holiday season of alarmingly low donor turnout” and 30% reduction in donations.
On the 26th of January, New York Blood Center identified suspicious activity on their IT systems.
They immediately contacted third-party cybersecurity experts to investigate who confirmed that the issues were the result of a ransomware incident.
New York Blood Center have confirmed that they have taken some systems offline in order to isolate the issue. They are now working to restore their systems safely however are not able to confirm a timeline for restoration.
The organization stresses that although some blood drives have had to be cancelled they are still accepting blood donations. However, processing times are likely to be longer than usual.
Read: NHS Suffers Blood Shortage as Cyber Attack Disrupts Donations
No threat actor or cyber gang has currently claimed responsibility for the New York Blood Center cyber attack.
The organization has also not yet confirmed if any donor date has been compromised.
However they do confirm a ‘ransomware’ attack which suggests the attackers have encrypted critical systems or data. They will then demand a ransom payment in exchange for the decryption key.
This type of attack often disrupts operations and can potentially lead to data breaches if the attackers extract the data before encryption.
What to do if you’ve been impacted by the New York Blood Center Cyber Attack?
Although New York Blood Center have not confirmed if any data has been compromised during the cyber attack, the thought of having personal health data compromised can be extremely distressing. However, there are always steps you can take to protect yourself if any data has potentially been leaked.
Be aware that any of your information being compromised can make you a target for social engineering and phishing scams. Any of these scams involve impersonating trusted organizations or individuals using information they already have about you as a result of the leak to convince you to hand over money or further details.
Update all passwords and enable multi-factor authentication on as many accounts as possible. This is especially important for social media accounts attached to your name as well as banking and email.
Read: OneBlood Confirms Cyber Attack Compromised Donor Information
Make sure you also keep a close eye on your bank and credit card statements for any unusual activity and report any suspicious transactions immediately and consider freezing your cards and credit.
Organizations must make sure to keep up with the latest trends and best practices in cybersecurity to prevent cyber attacks impacting their clients, customers and staff.
