The National Institute of Standards and Technology last week released a definition of critical software, which the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency will use to develop a list of critical software products, as directed by President Biden in a May executive order on improving U.S. cybersecurity. The AHA and Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center in April recommended health care leaders identify their organization’s mission-critical third-party software and understand the potential cyber risk associated with these platforms to help prevent another “SolarWinds-like” cyberattack.   
 
“Although this EO and the definitions are provided primarily for how the Federal Government purchases and manages deployed critical software, it is hoped that there will be a lasting heightened level of cybersecurity design and standards for the entire software marketplace, which will in turn benefit health care and all of the private sector,” said John Riggi, AHA senior advisor for cybersecurity and risk. “The compromise of the SolarWinds Orion platform by the Russian intelligence services and the on premises MS Exchange compromise by Chinese government affiliated actors, reminds us that our adversaries are aggressively targeting the U.S. public and private sectors in ongoing sophisticated cyber espionage campaigns. All indications are that this behavior is continuing unabated.”
 
For further information on this or other cyber and risk issues, contact Riggi at jriggi@aha.org.

 

Related News Articles

Headline
The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center released an alert May 7 warning of cyber actors exploiting vulnerabilities in end-of-life routers. Routers dated 2010…
Headline
The FBI’s Internet Criminal Complaint Center May 15 released an alert warning of a malicious text and voice messaging campaign involving impersonators…
Headline
In his latest AHA Cyber Intel blog, John Riggi, AHA national advisor for cybersecurity and risk, examines the state of cyber and physical threats in 2025 as…
Headline
Health care had more cyberthreats last year than any other critical infrastructure industry, according to the FBI's 2024 Internet Crime Report released April…
Headline
The National Security Agency April 23 released a report on operational technology systems that includes recommendations for security policies and technical…
Chairperson's File
Public
Cybersecurity and physical threats are unfortunately significant enterprise risks for health care, regardless of size or location. Every hospital, physician…