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Anonymous's Latest Target: Boston Children's Hospital

Brandon Butler writes: "Supporters of the faceless collective known as Anonymous have taken up the cause of a young girl, after the State of Massachusetts removed her from her parents earlier this year. However, the methods used to show support may have unintended consequences, which could impact patient care. On Thursday, the Boston Children's Hospital confirmed that they were subjected to multiple DDoS attacks over the Easter holiday. Said attacks, which have continued throughout the week, aim to take the hospital's website offline. Similar attacks, including website defacement, have also targeted the Wayside Youth and Family Support Network. Both organizations are at the heart of a sensitive topic, child welfare and the rights of a parent." Members of Anonymous are now calling for a halt to the attacks.

8 of 329 comments (clear)

  1. That is why social Hacking is Bad MmmKaa. by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've worked in healthcare.
    The company I worked for had their services hosted for at a data center. That Data Center also hosted some Banks.
    Groups like anonymous think they are performing some social disobedience by DDoS the banks, Also DDoS the actual Data center. While it took a few minutes for the network to switch over there were a few hundred doctors who couldn't access their software, for that time.

    XKCD described these attacks like vandalizing a bill board. But it is more like vandalizing a bill board by shooting a gun at it, and not knowing who or what is behind it.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:That is why social Hacking is Bad MmmKaa. by cdrudge · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So you are expecting every small company to afford a large network infrastructure.

      No. But I do expect companies that require their hosted services in order to function have backup plans should the service go down.

      If in this case of the original comment about several hundred doctors not being able to access their information when the banks were under attack...several hundred doctors isn't a small company. That's a large medical organization. Or if whoever was running the service was treating it like an overloaded shared server then they get what they pay for.

    2. Re:That is why social Hacking is Bad MmmKaa. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So like when a woman is drunk and she gets raped, it's her fault. Gotcha.

      You "Don't blame the victim!" people are completely mindless. Do you know what "false dichotomy" means? It is possible for multiple parties to be at fault. It is possible that the victim is an idiot for putting themselves in a situation that a reasonable person would know not to put themselves into. This doesn't really apply in a situation where you're going about your business and someone decides to rape you, but it does in a situation where you choose to use technology you know is insecure, something that puts other people *at risk* no matter how much you whine and cry about how evil other people are.

      And have you ever heard of "negligence," or anything remotely similar to it? Jesus. Get a fucking brain, and drop the "stop blaming the victim" bullshit; it's old and tired, and you have no idea how to use it.

  2. Re:What we would like to know by Tucan · · Score: 5, Informative
  3. which could impact patient care by frovingslosh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Attacks to a website could impact patient care? If there is any truth at all to this (which I really doubt) then people should be made aware of it immediately. Thanks Anonymous, I really want to know if I'm going to get patient care at a hospital where that care could be compromised just by a problem on their website.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    1. Re:which could impact patient care by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 5, Informative

      1. Children's hospitals receive donations and nail research grants with an alarming deftness. Boston Children's Hospital is, according to their own architecture, the best. There's no shortage of money. They did have some layoffs a couple of years ago, but with a ridiculous savings ratio (255 jobs, costing 89.5 million annually, constituting somewhere in the neighbourhood of 3% of their budget.)

      2. Their primary website is located at 134.174.13.251 (childrenshospital.org). Patient info retrieval is hosted on 134.174.13.5 (apps.childrenshospital.org). There is a booking form located on the main site, but at any rate it's working just fine now.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
  4. Re:What we would like to know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The family's own doctor selected a course of treatment _without_ performing the standard diagnostic test to indicate the condition. Also, this family went forum-shopping for a doctor until they found one that gave the diagnosis they wanted.

    On the surface this looks like a classic case of Münchausen syndrome by proxy. Other clues--the hospital said that the girl seemed less tense when her parents weren't around.

    I was taken away from my alcoholic mother for a year. I met two other kids (brother and sister) while in foster care whose parents pimped them out.

    It's a drastic measure to take kids away from their parents, but the kids will survive, whether it turns out to have been warranted or not. Calm the f* down.

  5. Except that's not exactly true... by PortHaven · · Score: 4, Informative

    a) Mitochondrial disease is not well understood, and Justina in fact shows symptoms that point to such. As does her sibling.

    b) BCH had a similar case, they tried to seize a 5 year old girl. Only thing is when Child Protective Services (CPS) went to the home, they realized it was someone who used to work for them and that they knew were not a danger. So custody was restored.

    c) But at this point, their 5 year old daughter had gone without treatment for so long. She died.

    d) Their son began to show similar symptoms. This time BCH did do a test. The result showed positive. But they did not inform the parents for three months. And still did not act on it. A second test was done by an independent lab. Which also confirmed evidence of mitochondrial disease. Their son was released.

    e) Their son has since gotten treatment at Tufts under the same doctor treating Justina. Who is regarded as one of the premier experts in this field. Oh, guess what. After the restoration of treatment, their son's condition improved. Shame their daughter hadn't been treated by BCH, or she'd probably be alive.

    f) BCH killed one child and is now killing another.