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The large not-for-profit blood centre, OneBlood, which serves hospitals and patients in the US, has experienced IT failure due to an alleged ransomware attack.
This agency is crucial to ensuring a stable blood supply in the country’s Southeast region by collecting, testing, and delivering a massive volume of blood products. As a result, there are concerns about how the ransomware will impact the centre’s procedures and therapies.
According to reports, an anonymous complaint stated that OneBlood was experiencing problems collecting blood samples at donor locations and via mobile donation buses. Hence, this complaint has forced the organisation to address the concerns by announcing that a ransomware attack has affected its software systems.
The company has assured concerned parties that they are collaborating with local and federal officials to address the situation and respond appropriately.
OneBlood explains that they are in the middle of restoring the full functionality of their systems.
OneBlood stated that its ongoing response efforts are focused on restoring the functions of all its systems to restore its standard operation. However, the ransomware attack has prompted the company to revert to manual processes.
This pen-and-paper operation has significantly impacted OneBlood’s entire process as the company collects, tests, and distributes blood, albeit at a drastically reduced capacity. According to a source, the ransomware attack occurred over the weekend, and the gang encrypted the organisation’s VMware hypervisor infrastructure.
Researchers noted that these ransomware gangs commonly target firms on weekends when fewer people can stop or interrupt the attack. In addition, targeting the VMware ESXi servers is an effective way to encrypt as much data as possible because these virtual machines are typically scattered among smaller physical devices.
The ransomware attack also forced OneBlood to request over 250 hospitals in the United States to activate essential blood shortage protocols to guarantee that remaining supplies reach those in most need.
Lastly, to mitigate the effect of the cyberattack, a partnership between blood donation centres and the AABB Disaster Task Force is being established to redirect blood products to OneBlood, allowing critical blood flow to hospitals and patients in need to continue.
