HHS alerts health sector to monkeypox-themed phishing campaign

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) yesterday alerted the sector to a monkeypox-themed phishing campaign targeting health care providers. The alert recommends organizations implement certain protective actions.

“This alert reminds us that our cyber adversaries, foreign-based criminal gangs and hostile nation-state intelligence services, continue to prey on our culture of care by sending phishing emails based upon current urgent health care issues,” said John Riggi, AHA’s national advisor for cybersecurity and risk. “These insidious emails targeting well-intentioned health care workers lure the recipients to click on malicious links, download malware and provide credentials, ultimately leading to the theft of patient data or hospital funds. Last week, the FBI issued an alert identifying a scheme in which stolen employee credentials were being used to divert and steal millions of dollars in hospital funds. In this multi-faceted and complex cyber threat environment, multi-factor authentication, phishing tests and verbal authentication for payment instruction changes are essential.”

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