Case Study: When Hackers Turn to Blackmail

1703 words 7 pages
Case Study: When Hackers Turn to Blackmail
1. The introduction of Sunnylake hospital case
The use of information technology in business presents major security challenges, poses serious ethical question, and affects society in significant ways. Especially, the computer crime is a growing threat to society and is caused by the criminal or irresponsible actions of individuals who are taking advantage of the widespread use and vulnerability of computers and the Internet and other networks. It presents a major challenge to the integrity, safety, and survival of most business systems.

Once Sunnylake Hospital was a backwater community care centre, while Paul, the CEO of Sunnylake had come to the hospital five years earlier, the situation of
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In no way should he acquiesce to the demands of the extortionists. There is no guarantee that they have not embedded further corruption in the system. The code needs to be examined line by line and thoroughly cleansed .The hospital’s network infrastructure and other IT systems must be analyzed for possible corruption and protected with updated security software. Finally, Paul needs to face up to the fact that he may lose his job. After all, he is responsible for all the strategic resources of the hospital, including IT. The board should also be held accountable for the lack of strategic oversight.

2.3 Running a malware scan on every workstation in the hospital
At Sunnylake the system keeps crashing because the attackers find a new way in every time a fix happens. If Paul had let the IT people know the moment the first nasty message arrived, they could have taken the system off the internet immediately, ensuring that a rogue program related to the attack could not get in from outside. This would also have blocked any back doors the hackers had created. Next, they should have verified that the bad guys had actually gained access to the network. It’s not unusual for an extortionist to send a threatening message in hopes of scaring the recipient into a payoff. Jacob and his team should have checked the system logs to see if changes had occurred. If they had reacted immediately, they could have forestalled the second e-mail or additional

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