Although the Sasser attack forced M.D. Anderson to print out patient records from uninfected PCs, it didn't impact patient care or interrupt any scheduled treatment, said Lyons.
Still, his teams worked around the clock to put the pieces back together. "This was a pretty significant diversion of IT resources," he said.
While he hadn't had the chance to pin down the source of infection, Lyons said he suspected it came from a laptop brought into the hospital and connected to its network. Unlike most worms, Sasser doesn't require any human intervention -- such as opening an e-mail attachment -- but scans for vulnerable systems and surreptitiously plants its payload.
Elsewhere in the U.S., the Associated Press sent an e-mail advisory to all its staff Monday that the Sasser worm had hit its New York-based network, and that Internet access would be sluggish as it cleaned infected systems and scanned for new infections on incoming PCs.
"We are anticipating some continued Sasser issues in the next few days, as computers are booted up for the first time as people come back from days off, etc.," the e-mail warned.
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
