On October 29, 2020, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) warned of an increased, imminent threat to U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers. The agencies have credible information that malicious cyber actors are targeting the healthcare and public health sectors with malware such as Ryuk, Conti, TrickBot and BazarLoader. Use of this malware can result in ransomware attacks, disruption of healthcare services and data theft. The joint CISA, FBI and HHS alert (AA20-302A) can be found here. The alert references a joint CISA MS-ISAC ransomware guide with best practices that can be found here.
We urge our healthcare and public sector clients to increase protective measures to prevent ransomware attacks, such as alerting employees to be vigilant with respect to phishing attempts and ensuring software and operating systems are patched and updated. Additional steps include: regularly backing up systems and data; ensuring passwords are robust and changed periodically; minimizing access so that personnel credentials only allow each employee to access information related to his/her/their duties; and with remotely working personnel and outside resources, making sure your points of contact are current. It is also a good time, if clients have not done so already, to establish or reassess your entity’s cyber incident response plan.
Attorneys at CSG are available to assist with your cybersecurity needs, to train personnel, prepare and update incident response plans, and help you appropriately respond to a ransomware attack or other security incident, should one occur.