Local businesses and governments have recently fallen victim to cybersecurity attacks

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Recent cyberattacks have put personal patient information at risk across Florida.

The Florida Department of Health is one of many victims of cyberattacks that have caused outages in its key database.

The Florida Department of Health is having problems with its “vital statistics” system because it is slowing down the delivery of local services such as birth and death certificates.

In a statement to WCTV, the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed outages in its vital statistics system, which contains personal patient data, including birth and death dates.

The DOH is working with law enforcement to resolve this issue and plans to notify all affected parties immediately.

Blake Dowling, CEO of Ageis Technology, warns that this scenario could be very dangerous if an outside party has access to confidential information.

“You’re dealing with two different threats,” Dowling said. “A. Your systems are frozen and the hackers are demanding ransom to restore them. B. If you don’t pay the ransom, they’ll start demanding money or they’ll make sensitive data public on the dark web, thereby withholding sensitive information. We’re talking about some bad information being available online.”

More news from Tallahassee:

Dowling recommends that the best way to protect yourself is to stay safe online and use strong passwords.

To stay up to date with all the latest news, follow WCTV on Facebook And X (Þjórsárden).

Do you have a news tip or do you see an error that needs to be corrected? Write to us here. Please include the title of the article in your message.

Stay up to date with the most important headlines with the WCTV News app. Click Here to download it now.

All rights reserved.