The American Hospital Association is pointing health systems to a federal advisory warning that Chinese hackers are employing the “covert networks” of compromised devices to prepare for and carry out cyberattacks.
“For hospitals, this is particularly relevant,” said John Riggi, AHA national security advisor for cybersecurity and risk, in an April 24 news release. “Health systems are considered critical infrastructure and have been exposed to China-affiliated malware campaigns such as Volt Typhoon and Flax Typhoon. These ‘Typhoon’ campaigns have used covert networks to conduct espionage and preposition for disruptive attacks against other healthcare-dependent critical infrastructure.”
Mr. Riggi suggested health systems review inventories for unpatched or outdated connected devices, review work-from-home tech policies, more strongly monitor for abnormal web traffic patterns, and adopt “behavior-based” cyber defenses.
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