Cohesity Helps Sky Lakes Medical Center in Oregon Recover From Ransomware Attack

Cohesity, Inc.‘s customer Sky Lakes Medical Center, a hospital located in Klamath Falls, OR, was able to recover all of its servers and applications following a ransomware attack, all without paying a ransom.

The effort save the healthcare provider money and preserve trust in its systems, and also helped it treat patients largely without disruption, potentially saving lives.

In October 2020, Sky Lakes was breached by a massive ransomware attack. While this could have been a devastating blow to the organization, the Cisco-Cohesity hyperscale data management solution utilized by Sky Lakes played a key role in mitigating the impact of the attack.

Sky Lakes relied on Cohesity DataProtect and its anti-ransomware capabilities including immutable backup snapshots, DataLock capabilities that prevent modifying or deleting the backup, and other built-in protections to respond and rapidly recover data at scale – allowing the information systems team to reject the cybercriminal’s demands.

Cohesity also eliminated time-consuming tape backup recovery processes, speeding restores with virtually no data loss. In the end, it was able to help Sky Lakes recover roughly 650 servers and 150 applications, including those with clinical, financial, and materials management functionality.

“Little did we know that Cohesity was going to literally rescue Sky Lakes from having to pay a ransom,” said John Gaede, director of information systems, Sky Lakes Medical Center. “The backup and recovery technology just flat-out worked. We ultimately recovered all of our servers, and Cohesity worked time and time again throughout that process.“

The importance of such a recovery can’t be overstated: particularly for a medical center with the size and reputation of Sky Lakes. The effort saved millions of dollars, helped preserve the integrity of the institution, and enabled the organization to continue to treat patients and help keep its community healthy.

“We were able to recover our clinical systems, and one of the first was for our cancer treatment center,” said Sam Stewart, network systems analyst, Sky Lakes Medical Center. “Cancer doesn’t wait for anybody, and if patients are unable to get timely treatment, cancer will win that battle. So, you could argue, quite literally, that Cohesity saved lives in this instance.“

“This incident highlights just how vital modern data management and DR are, particularly in industries such as healthcare where data is critical to the wellbeing of a community’s citizens,” said Matt Waxman, VP of product management, Cohesity. “While we wish these attacks would not happen in the first place, the hard truth is they are a reality that organizations of all sizes need to be prepared for, as it’s often not a matter of if, but when.“

Sky Lakes was among the first to test and deploy the validated Cisco-Cohesity 40G design. In addition to modern backup, it relies on Cohesity SmartFiles, a solution for file and object services that is part of the Cohesity Helios multicloud data platform that goes beyond traditional scale-out NAS.

Healthcare providers need to manage an array of data types including tens of thousands of electronic healthcare records that contain unstructured data such as images and scans. SmartFiles running on Cisco HyperFlex lowered Sky Lakes Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) TCO by using Cisco HyperFlex as a cache tier for radiology images and SmartFiles as an archive tier.

“There was already 100% consensus among our engineers that the Cohesity-Cisco solution worked reliably, was easy to use, and we were all more productive with it,” Gaede added. “Now, there’s also agreement that Cohesity is the best solution to combat ransomware attacks.“

To learn more about combating ransomware, sign up to participate in this webinar with Sky Lakes’ John Gaede, Christophe Bertrand, senior analyst, ESG, and Raj Dutt, senior director, product marketing, Cohesity.

Case study: Sky Lakes Medical Center Avoids Paying Ransom, Lowers PACS TCO