The Justice Department reveals that a Chief Operating Officer (COO) of a security firm was charged for conducting a cyberattack on Gwinnett Medical Center in 2018 for personal and financial gain.
Chief Operating Officer is one of the highest-ranking executive positions who take care of the company’s operational functions and administration.
Vikas Singla, 45, of Marietta, COO of metro-Atlanta network security company, that serves as a security vendor for the healthcare industry conducted a cyberattack on Gwinnett Medical Center.
“Cyberattacks that target important infrastructure, like healthcare, pose a serious threat to public health and safety,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Kurt R. Erskine.
“This cyberattack on a hospital not only could have had disastrous consequences but patient’s personal information was also compromised,” said Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta.
The Cyberattack was conducted by Singla and others on Sept. 27, 2018, which disrupts hospital phone services, network printer services and steals information from digitizing devices used in the hospital.
Vikas Singla was charged with “17 counts of intentional damage to a protected computer and one count of obtaining information from a protected computer”.
Singla would get a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment for damaging a protected computer and a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment for stealing information from a protected computer.
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