We Were Not Hacked

At a press conference early this morning, T. John McIntyre, President of MedDevice, told reporters that his company was the alleged target of the cybersecurity attack reported yesterday by the Cybersecurity Agency’s (CSA) Critical Infrastructure Security Operations Center (CI-SOC). He told reporters that the cyberattack was a routine communication with our manufacturing partner in China, not an attack on the company.

“I spent a number of hours yesterday meeting with the CI-SOC away team and we finally concluded that the ‘data exfiltration’ that their system detected was actually a routine communication with MedZS, our manufacturing partner in Guangdong, China.” McIntyre told reporters; “This whole ‘cyberattack’ fiasco was caused by some miscommunications between MedDevice and CI-SOC.”

An email from General Buck Turgidson (ret), Director of CI-SOC indicated that the IP address that the information was sent to by MedDevice was not on the current list of approved communications whitelist prepared by the Company. Walter O’Reilly, spokes person for MedDevice, confirmed that the data was sent to a new cloud-based account used by MedZS that had not yet been communicated to CI-SOC.

O-Reilly told reporters that the data dump was a detailed description of the company’s new rapid-test device for COVID-19 detection that the company expects to be placed in company’s and schools for daily screening of employees and students arriving at a facility. The device relies on a non-invasive swab being taken from the inside of the facemask being worn the person to be tested with a specially treated cotton swab. The COVIDSWAB® would then be placed in a scanner and a positive/negative determination would be made within seconds.

“This will be a game changer for facilities that want to safely open during the COVID-19 pandemic,” O’Reilly said.

A source that declined to be named because they were not authorized to talk to the press told me that the leadership at the CI-SOC was somewhat abashed about the apparently premature announcement of the non-attack, but still felt that the right decision had been made. There were concerns that recent reports about the current understaffing of the facility were leaving the impression that the facility was not an effective response to cyberattacks on critical infrastructure.

According to Johnathan Quest, spokes person for the Federal Bureau of Inquiry, that agency’s investigation of the incident has not yet been closed. “There are still some questions about the sharing of information with a Chinese company with ties to the PLA, specially with the potential national security implications of this product,” Quest told reporters this morning.

Sen TJ Kong (R,GA) told reporters today that he agreed with the decision by Turgidson to release the information on the reported cyberattack even though it turned out to be a miscommunication problem instead of an attack. “It is important that the country knows that the US government is being proactive in defending the nation from foreign cyber adversaries,” he said; “Minor hiccups like this are to be expected as the CI-SOC and its private sector partners learn how to work together.”

CAUTIONARY NOTE: This is a future news story –