http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=131712
By Tim Wilson
Site Editor, Dark Reading
AUGUST 15, 2007
Verus Inc., the IT contractor that has been implicated in security
breaches at at least five different hospitals across the country, has
gone out of business.
The Bellevue, Wash., company, which built and maintained Websites and
services on behalf of some 40 to 60 hospitals nationwide, was disbanded
"eight to 10 weeks ago" when investors pulled the plug following a
massive blunder that exposed many of its clients' data to the outside
world, according to an executive at MedSeek, an IT contractor that is
now handling many of Verus' clients.
While reports of the breaches have been issued in dribs and drabs, all
of the data losses can now be attributed to a single incident, in which
Verus employees left a firewall down following the transfer of data from
one server to another, according to David Levin, vice president of
marketing at MedSeek.
"All of the breaches were the result of an IT error, as opposed to any
problems with the software," Levin says. "They made a huge mistake, and
it literally shut the company down. It's really a cautionary tale."
Verus's Website has been pulled down, and calls to the company's offices
are referred to MedSeek customer service. No announcement of the
shutdown, nor any explanation of the reasons behind it, appear to have
been issued to the media or to Verus partners.
"We're not sure if the breaches were the only reason why they closed
down -- there might have been other issues as well," Levin says. "But we
know we got the call to support the [Verus] customers very soon after
the breach was supposed to have happened."
Reports of the breaches range from mid-April to late May, but Verus has
been implicated in at least five disclosures since the beginning of
June:
* On June 4, Stevens Hospital in Edmonds, Wash., reported the
exposure of 550 patients' data through a failure in the online
bill payment service operated by Verus.
* On June 6, Keenewick General Hospital in Washington reported a
similar breach affecting 1,000 patients, and attributed it to the
Verus online bill payment service.
* On June 7, Concord Hospital in New Hampshire disclosed the loss of
9,000 names because Verus had "turned off a firewall for
maintenance purposes" and failed to turn it back on again. The
breach was not disclosed publicly until late July (See Third
Parties Fumble Data Handoffs.)
* On July 24, St. Vincent's Hospital in Indiana reported a security
breach that exposed data on some 51,000 patients. The hospital
blamed Verus, which exposed the data while transferring data
between servers.
* Earlier today, Sky Lakes Medical Center in Oregon revealed that
30,000 patients' names had been inadvertently exposed in late May,
when Verus didn't take sufficient precautions while transferring
data from one server to another.
All of the hospitals said they immediately terminated their contracts
with Verus following the breach. All of the hospitals said they have yet
to see any reports of hackers or criminals using the data.
According to Levin, the breaches all affected hospitals using Verus's
VPAC online billing system, which MedSeek does not use. Verus's hospital
customers will be given a choice as to whether they want to migrate to
the MedSeek platform and services, or move to some other vendor.
5B
____________________________________
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