The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Health and Human Services have credible information about an increased and imminent cybercrime threat to hospitals and healthcare providers in the United States.
The agencies have released AA20-302A Ransomware Activity Targeting the Healthcare and Public Health Sector, which details the threat as well as the practices that healthcare organizations should continuously engage in to help manage the risk posed by ransomware and other cyber threats.
Specifically, malicious cyber actors are targeting the healthcare and public health sector with Trickbot malware, often leading to ransomware attacks, data theft, and the disruption of healthcare services.
The agencies note that these issues will be particularly challenging for healthcare organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic, so administrators will need to balance these risks when determining their cybersecurity investments.
The advisory references the joint CISA MS-ISAC Ransomware Guide, which provides a ransomware response checklist that can serve as a ransomware-specific addendum to healthcare providers’ cyber incident response plans.
The agencies are sharing this information to warn healthcare providers so they can ensure that they are taking timely and reasonable precautions to protect their networks from these threats. The CISA encourages users and administrators to review CISA’s ransomware webpage for more information.
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