The Clop ransomware group has been sending health care facilities ransomware-infected medical files disguised to appear to come from legitimate doctors, then requesting a medical appointment in hopes they’ll open and review the documents, the Department of Health and Human Services alerted the health sector.

“As these primarily Russian-speaking foreign ransomware gangs compete for victims to exploit in their own highly competitive criminal subculture, they are forced to evolve their attack techniques,” said John Riggi, AHA’s national advisor for cybersecurity and risk. “Here, the Clop ransomware gang has done so in a very sinister way — by infiltrating themselves into the normal clinical workflow between physicians and developing highly convincing phishing emails based upon the public profiles of clinicians. It is recommended that staff be educated to this latest tactic. It is also recommended that advanced email and endpoint malware protection and detection systems be deployed across the enterprise as a layer of defense to help counter this and all ongoing cyberthreats to hospitals and health systems.” 

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

Related News Articles

Headline
The Health Sector Coordinating Council Oct. 7 released its Sector Mapping and Risk Toolkit, created to help health care providers and other organizations…
Headline
The AHA Oct. 6 released a Cybersecurity Advisory urging immediate action against a critical Oracle E-Business Suite vulnerability that is remotely exploitable…
Headline
The AHA has launched an enhanced Cybersecurity and Risk webpage designed to help health care organizations strengthen their defenses against emerging cyber and…
Headline
A Health-ISAC (Information Sharing and Analysis Center) bulletin released Oct. 1 warns of a recently released LockBit 5.0 ransomware variant that poses a…
Headline
Fernando Martinez, Ph.D., chief digital officer at the Texas Hospital Association, shares how Texas and the THA are building regional resilience through cyber…
Headline
The federal government shut down Oct. 1 following a failed Senate vote on the House-passed continuing resolution to fund the government by midnight Sept. 30.…