The Department of Homeland Security has issued a new warning to healthcare institutions, alerting them to increasing threats on both digital and physical fronts, ABC7 reported March 4.
Amid an ongoing ransomware attack on Optum's Change Healthcare — one of many recent cybersecurity breaches impacting health system operations — DHS is warning organizations to look out for "malicious cyber actors [that] target the Healthcare and Public Health Sector for financial gain, cyber espionage purposes or ideological reasons."
In its 2024 Homeland Threat Assessment, DHS anticipated that healthcare and public health infrastructure would continue to be targeted by cyber actors, specifically those affiliated with the Chinese, Russian and Iranian governments.
The latest warning also notes that domestic threats against hospitals, executives and physicians have expanded from COVID-19-related targets to abortion and gender-affirming care facilities. Since the pandemic, there has been a surge in "hoax bomb threats against hospitals" and "calls to execute particular physicians, public officials, or pharmaceutical executives," according to the notice.
View DHS' list of safety and security resources for healthcare providers here.