Agencies recommend action to protect against top malware threats

A new advisory from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Australian Cyber Security Centre details the top malware strains observed last year and immediate actions organizations should take to protect themselves from these remote access Trojans, information stealers and ransomware threats.

“This report confirms that the most prolific malware users are cyber criminals who use malware to deliver ransomware,” said John Riggi, AHA’s national advisor for cybersecurity and risk. “A particular threat interest to hospitals and health systems cited in the report is the botnet TrickBot, which was leveraged by the notorious Russian-speaking ransomware gang known as Conti to conduct at least 450 attacks globally, including at least 16 high-impact ransomware attacks against U.S. health care organizations. Along with prioritizing patching of known vulnerabilities and enforcing multi-factor authorization, the report recommends utilizing CISA’s free cyber hygiene services, which include continuous scanning of an organization’s public IP addresses and weekly vulnerability reports. This is a very good service for hospitals and health systems to add, especially those with limited resources, as part of a layered, defense-in-depth cybersecurity strategy.”

For more information on this or other cyber and risk issues, contact Riggi at jriggi@aha.org.