McCue: ‘No confidential info’ lost in hack threat at Ellis Co. EMS

No private information was obtained in the alleged computer hacking threat last year of the Ellis Co. EMS administrative phone lines.

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

No confidential information was obtained during last year’s alleged denial-of-service attack against computers hosting the Ellis County Emergency Medical Service (EMS) administrative voice lines, according to county health administrator Kerry McCue.

“There were no administrative phone calls overheard and no patient information was obtained or lost from our possession,” McCue said Wednesday afternoon. “There were no HIPAA concerns or violations.”

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is U.S. legislation that provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information.

McCue wants to assure the public that “no confidential information” was accessed by the alleged computer hacker.

A Larned man, Michael D. Golightley, 34, is charged with seven counts of damaging a protected computer and one count of threatening to damage a protected computer. The crimes are alleged to have occurred in March 2017 in Ellis County.

According to a July 17 news release from U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister, District of Kansas, the indictment alleges Golightley hired an entity known as DDosCity to carry out a series of denial-of-service attacks against computers served by the local internet service provider Nex-Tech.

Nex-Tech provided backup and monitoring service for Ellis County’s EMS administrative voice lines, Russell County’s hospital voice lines, the Quinter hospital’s voice lines, the Grove County Sheriff’s administrative voice lines, the Russell County Sheriff’s administrative voice lines and the administrative voice lines for the police and fire departments of Russell County.