Pic By BLOOMBERG

A SENIOR US Republican lawmaker wants more details on how a cyberattack affected Nuance Transcription Services, a provider of transcription and dictation services to the healthcare sector, reported Bloomberg BNA.

While Burlington, Massachusetts-based Nuance was able to mitigate the effects of the attack and prevent long-lasting damage, the attack prevented customers from using the company’s services for an extended period of time, House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Greg Walden said in a letter released on Oct 19.

The letter asked Nuance, by Nov 2, to provide the committee with a formal briefing about the circumstances surrounding the initial infection, and the steps it has taken to recover and restore its capabilities. Nuance didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The letter reflects an ongoing congressional interest in the issue of cyber security, W Reece Hirsch, a healthcare attorney with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in San Francisco, told Bloomberg Law on Oct 19.

As the level of cyberattacks continues to grow, the US Congress might encourage more sharing of cyberthreat information among healthcare organisations, Hirsch said. New legislation probably won’t be in the works due to the robust nature of the security rule under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (1996), or HIPAA, Hirsch said.

“Cyber attackers continue to be increasingly sophisticated, and it’s hard for healthcare organisations to withstand attacks,” Hirsch said.

For HIPAA-covered entities, cyberattacks need to be built into the risk analysis, Hirsch, a Bloomberg Law advisory board member, said.

Nuance was hit by the June 27 NotPetya cyberattack, which involved a virus that exploited software vulnerabilities at companies across the globe, often encrypting data and locking out employees.

Walden said Nuance provides services for a large portion of the healthcare sector, making it crucial to understand how the company was infected by the NotPetya virus and how it responded to the attack and regained control.

The NotPetya attack “represents a new challenge where it is one of the first instances in which a malware infection has so severely disrupted the ability of healthcare professionals to treat patients”, Walden said in the letter.

Healthcare organisations are beginning to create policies to deal with cyberattacks like NotPetya, Hirsch said, but finding the funds to protect against these threats is a challenge.