http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/13782298.htm By Michael Schroeder The Journal Gazette Feb. 03, 2006 As part of an ongoing FBI investigation into Medical Informatics Engineering and alleged software tampering at Orthopaedics Northeast, Parkview Health confirmed it is cooperating with the investigation. The hacker appears to have breached Orthopaedics Northeast's network by exploiting connections of Parkview and an unnamed medical office from the outside, said Raymond Kusisto, chief executive officer of Orthopaedics Northeast. The FBI is investigating software company Medical Informatics, 4101 W. Jefferson Blvd., in connection with the breach, a Medical Informatics official confirmed. No charges have been filed. "The hacker simply used Parkview as a mule," Kusisto said. "Parkview didn't have anything to do with this." New Medical Informatics competitor triPRACTIX, 1330 Medical Park Drive - which now manages Orthopaedics Northeast software - contacted the FBI on Orthopaedic Northeast's behalf after hiring consultants who determined software problems were caused by outside tampering, Todd Plesko, chief executive officer of triPRACTIX, had said. There were nine cyber-attacks in the first two weeks of January, Kusisto said. The software problems slowed operations and increased overtime work but didn't affect patient safety or records security at Orthopaedics. 12 area locations, Kusisto said. Karen Belcher, spokeswoman for Parkview, said all patient records in Parkview's network are secure. "When we were alerted... that there was a concern, we went ahead and checked out the systems, and we did not find a problem," Belcher said. If a hacker did enter Parkview's network, individual applications are equipped with security systems designed to restrict access. Belcher said cyber security measures include virus protection, monitoring systemwide operations and tracking user activity. Belcher said Parkview is helping the FBI in any way it can. She referred specific questions about the investigation to Assistant U.S. Attorney David Miller, who would not comment on the matter. A Medical Informatics official said the company is eager to see the results of the FBI's investigation. Chief Operating Officer Eric Jones said that "FBI investigators indicated that there was evidence that machines on MIE's (Medical Informatics Engineering's) network were somehow involved in the alleged attack on ONE's (Orthopaedics Northeast's) network." But Jones maintained that the company is innocent. "We don't believe anything like that occurred," Jones said. "That is not the way that we do business." _________________________________ InfoSec News v2.0 - Coming Soon! http://www.infosecnews.org
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Sun Feb 05 2006 - 22:50:07 PST