According to Liederman, organizations should anticipate losing access to critical systems and have a strategic recovery plan in place.
One of the most important components of such a plan is designating roles and responsibilities for the organization’s response. During an attack, the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) essentially takes on the role of CEO, dictating the course of action for the entire organization. Liederman says the CISO must tell people which systems are still usable and what must be shut down.
The CEO, in this situation, plays a supporting role, asking what’s possible and what needs to be done to protect operations.
A significant misconception Liederman has observed is the assumption that analog systems like phones and fax machines will continue functioning during a ransomware attack. Often, these systems rely on the same infrastructure as other compromised technology. For example, phone systems that seem analog still resolve to an IP address, which means they could be rendered useless along with other internet-based systems.
Even fax machines, commonly thought of as a fail-safe, may only function as copiers in these scenarios.
Liederman strongly advises healthcare institutions to conduct thorough drills that simulate these kinds of disruptions, enabling clinical and IT staff to practice workarounds for potentially critical outages. This level of preparation ensures that teams can still deliver care and operate essential systems even when technological resources are down for days or weeks.
In terms of system recovery, Liederman encourages organizations to plan for bringing devices back online securely. While the need to restore services quickly is essential to maintaining operations, the process must be carefully managed to avoid reinfection by the ransomware or other vulnerabilities.
Given his extensive experience, which includes almost two decades at Kaiser Permanente, Liederman advocates for resilient healthcare IT infrastructures that focus on readiness. This proactive approach allows healthcare organizations to mitigate the potential impacts of cyberattacks, ensuring that patient care can continue even in worst-case scenarios.
