The latest threat brief from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Information Security and Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) reviews the top cyber threats to electronic medical records and best practices to help health care organizations prevent, detect and respond to this growing threat. 
 
“The HC3 report highlights the current methodology cyber adversaries use to target EMRs,” said John Riggi, AHA’s national advisor for cybersecurity and risk. “These attacks have significantly increased the theft of protected health information (PHI), and in the case of ransomware attacks, may delay and disrupt health care delivery. According to information posted by the HHS Office for Civil Rights, most health care data thefts appear to occur in locations outside the EMR, such as at third parties, email systems and medical devices. It is recommended that all PHI, regardless of location, be mapped and encrypted at rest and in transit.” 
 
For more information on this or other cyber and risk issues, contact Riggi at jriggi@aha.org. For the latest cyber and risk resources and threat intelligence, visit aha.org/cybersecurity.

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…