Washington - In the summer 2021, Iranian-backed hackers attempted a successful cyber attack on Boston Children's Hospital. This was disclosed Wednesday by FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Wray spoke at a cybersecurity conference held by Boston College. He said that when the FBI was alerted by an "intelligence partnership" about malicious activity, agents in Boston Field Office "raced” to identify and mitigate it.
According to a government official, hackers linked to Iran were behind the foiled attack that could have been characterized as a series of threats. This could have led to a system-wide shut down that could have adversely affected the care of children at the hospital.
Wray stated that Iran's hack attempt was "one the most detestable cyberattacks" he had seen. He added that the network and those who depended on it were protected by the quick actions of everyone involved, particularly at the hospital.
According to a government official, the FBI had little time to respond to the attack. However, the FBI got in touch with the children’s hospital soon after being alerted.
Boston Children's managed to stop the attack by working with the FBI and its cybersecurity division. According to a senior official in government, investigators have not been able to find any hacker entry into the hospital's computer systems.
Wray spoke at the cyber conference, telling attendees that the FBI's quick response and partnership with the hospital was a testimony to the importance of the private sector working alongside federal investigators to stop malicious and often state-sponsored hack attacks.
The hospital stated in a written statement that "Thanks to the FBI staff working so closely with us, we proactively thwarted any threat to our network,"
According to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, (CISA), ransomware attacks can also have long-term adverse effects on hospitals.
CISA released an analysis last October that highlighted the troubling relationship between cybersecurity intrusions, loss of life and hospitals that have reached "crisis standard of care" in states that were forced to ration their resources following the pandemic.
Long-term patient care is also affected by the attacks. Hospital staff are forced to spend more time monitoring a patient's health history.
The report concluded that "Downstream consequences include delayed or cancelled surgeries, cancer treatments, closures of COVID-19 test collection locations, inability submit radiology imaging, and loss of communication among hospitals in the network." "This resulted in critical patient diversion, paper-based records keeping, and the suspension of care for high-risk patients."
It is unclear what the hackers' intentions were.
Wray in March called out Iranian government-linked hackers who launched a cyberattack against a children’s hospital. The FBI director made a shocking disclosure Wednesday when he revealed that the hospital in question was Boston Children's.
