Reference no: EM133461153

In 2022, CommonSpirit Health System fell under cyber attack from mid September to early October. In April it was released that the attack was actually larger than originally said and that over 100 hospitals from 13 different states (FIERCE Healthcare, 2023) were affected as well as 2,000 patient care sights (Security Intelligence, 2022). It is "...estimated that 20 million patients were affected by this attack." (Security Intelligence, 2022). Patients' personal information were copied and, while the system was down, patient care was greatly affected. This attack best falls under the definition of terrorism provided by Alex Schmid and Albert Jongman since the victims were not specifically selected to target but were symbolic targets or from a target population. This would be an example of New Terrorism as well as Modern Terrorism because of the lack of specific targets, millions of casualties, and could be considered an attempt at the destruction of society. Although a reasoning was never given for this attack it could be assumed that it was for financial gain by using people's personal information as the product.

In this instance of cyber security, the ICT function concerning access to information failed since "...only those with authorization to see different information or use different features are able to do so." ( Whyte & Mazanec, 2019, pg. 19). Although it was an attack on an organization not affiliated with national security, healthcare is still a target that could greatly affect our nation and her interests. The Department of Homeland Security as well as the National Security Agency should provide or continue to provide preventative measures as well as reactive measures to actions such as these within our country and internationally. If reactions to these breaches from our national agencies do not provide a punishment or a deterrent, actions like these will continue and cripple our healthcare system and have an effect that branches out into all aspects of our society.