Russian APTs: Why Stakes Are So High for Healthcare Sector
January 12, 2022 – Published on GovInfoSecurity
Healthcare and public health sector entities must heed the warnings this week by federal authorities of Russian state-sponsored cyberthreats to critical infrastructure organizations, some experts say, pointing out the high stakes of attacks, especially during the pandemic.
On Tuesday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the National Security Agency and the FBI released a joint advisory warning that Russian-backed advanced persistent threat actors are leveraging certain tactics, techniques and procedures to infiltrate critical infrastructure.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center on Tuesday also issued its own advisory, alerting the healthcare and public health sector to the joint warning from CISA, the NSA and the FBI.
“As Russia continues to act as a major cyber threat against the U.S. healthcare and public health sector, it is extremely important to both know AND apply the information included in this alert,” HC3 warns.
“Reducing your organization’s attack surface to the greatest extent possible is the primary goal, and this alert provides many ways to do that. Notably: Ensure the listed vulnerabilities are patched; use multifactor authentication; establish a robust data backup program; and consider signing up for CISA’ cyber hygiene services.”
GuidePoint Security’s senior director of cyber defense, Mark Lance says: “APTs should always be a consideration for any organization that has potentially sensitive information that might be of value to nation-state-sponsored actors.”
In the healthcare sector, medical records about innovative medical procedures, diagnosis, prescriptions, etc., are all information that could be used by sophisticated threat actors for targeting a specific person or organization, he says. “It’s important to remember that unlike other threats such as criminal threat actors, which commonly use ransomware and are monetarily motivated, most APTs are motivated by access to information and generally much more targeted in nature.”
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