Hospital CEOs questioned about transparency

The five CEOs of area hospitals affected by October's cyberattack held a Zoom conference with members of the media, prompting one reporter to ask why it took so long.

The transparency of the group was questioned leading a couple of CEO’s to push back. Bill Marra, CEO of Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, pointed out there have been eight joint media releases in the last 26 days which amounts to about one every three days.

“There has been transparency,” Marra said. “It may not meet the standard of some people but we've done an exceptionally good job in a very responsible and safe way to not further compromise what we've already experienced.”

Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David Musyj added to the explanation.

“The quickest way to make it worse is to go toe to toe with them publically,” Musyj said. “That's not going to help anyone so our focus from the start has been on our patients and our staff and will continue to be so.”

The CEO's say they continue to support and have faith moving forward with TransForm, the organization managing their IT services.

“Trans Form is working around the clock to support prioritization of clinical services being brought up to a point of some resumption of services,” said Erie Shores Healthcare CEO Kristen Kennedy who added TransForm is also rebuilding the system from the ground up with a long-term strategy.

“So that we do minimize these attacks moving forward.”

The cost associated with the rebuild is to be determined but the CEO's will be reaching out to the government for help at some point.

The CEOs also shared insight on their decision not to pay the ransom.

“Our experts indicated they could not deliver on their promise to completely erase the data they absconded with,” said Musyj who is pushing for the government to continue their pursuit of legislation outlawing payment of ransomware as a deterrent to cyber criminals. “A no ransom payment position as they recently endorsed with 49 other countries as part of the international counter ransomware initiative.”