North Korean hackers extort hospitals to fund attacks on US government
Editor's Note North Korean hackers targeted U.S. hospitals and healthcare systems with ransomware to fund a covert information exfiltration campaign against American military and scientific entities, according to a July 25 report from CBS News. The first attack was a May 2021 ransomware infiltration of a hospital in Kansas. The…
Mass Brigham cancels surgeries amid worldwide tech outage
Editor's Note A global Microsoft server outage disrupting critical services from airline operations to banking is also having a significant impact on healthcare, according to multiple news reports. On example is a Friday, July 19 report from CBS News reporting that Mass General Brigham, the largest health care system in…
Bipartisan healthcare cybersecurity bill introduced
Editor's Note Introduced by a bipartisan group of Senators, the Healthcare Cybersecurity Act aims to bolster the cyber-defenses of healthcare entities through the collaboration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). According to a July 16 report in HealthExec,…
Healthcare industry groups criticize federal cybersecurity reporting rule
Editor's Note Healthcare industry groups are calling for the federal government to streamline and ease the recently proposed cybersecurity incident reporting rule by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Fierce Healthcare reported July 8. According to the report, CISA's proposal imposes enhanced reporting requirements for critical infrastructure entities, including…
Justice Department announces nationwide action on healthcare fraud enforcement
Editor's Note On June 27, The Justice Department announced the 2024 National Health Care Fraud Enforcement Action, leading to criminal charges against 193 defendants, including 76 medical professionals across 32 federal districts in the U.S. for their involvement in various health care fraud schemes. These schemes accounted for approximately $2.75…
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Jump to Registration Form Register now by completing the form below. Following the webinar, you will be able to take an evaluation and receive 1 CE. In an era of rapid technological advancement, surgical teams must leverage cutting-edge tools and practices to enhance patient care and operational efficiency while navigating…
Healthcare cybersecurity earns B+, but vulnerabilities remain
Editor's Note Although SecurityScorecard gave the US healthcare a “better than expected” B+ rating for cybersecurity in 2024, the supply chain cybersecurity firm also highlighted significant risks in application and endpoint security, HealthcareIT News reported June 25. Overall, 35% of third-party data breaches in 2023 affected healthcare organizations, the…
FBI, HHS issue healthcare cybersecurity warning
Editor's Note A June 24 advisory from the FBI and Department of Health and Human Services warns healthcare organizations about attempts to steal payments through phishing and social engineering tactics, according to a post from the American Hospital Association (AHA). The attackers target employee email accounts to access login information…
Russian ransomware group threatens cybersecurity beyond London attack
Editor's Note Qilin, a ransomware group based in Russia, claimed responsibility for a cyberattack against pathology services provider Synnovis that paralyzed London Hospitals and is now requesting $50 million, Becker’s Health IT reported June 20. Citing a report from Bloomberg, the article notes that the attack disrupted services at London-based hospitals…
Change Healthcare issues notifications of patient data stolen in cyberattack
Editor's Note Change Healthcare has started to notify health care providers about patient data stolen in the February cyberattack and announced plans to mail affected individuals as well. A unit of UnitedHealth Group, the organization issued the update June 20. “CHC is providing this notice now to help individuals understand…