Institute identifies 25 most dangerous software vulnerabilities

The Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute, sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security and operated by MITRE, recently announced this year’s Top 25 Most Dangerous Software Weaknesses, which an attacker could use to control a system, steal data and prevent applications from working. The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency encourages organizations to review the report and recommended mitigations to determine those most suitable to adopt. 

“This very technical but very useful guide is essential for software developers and for the consumers who use their applications, such as hospitals and health systems,” said John Riggi, AHA’s national advisor for cybersecurity and risk. “It is clear that the vast majority of cyber risk and expenses related to cyber vulnerability management that hospitals and health systems incur are due to vulnerabilities in the third-party technologies we depend upon. Unfortunately, we as organizational and individual consumers have become accustomed to the fact that third-party technology is ‘insecure by default.’ We need to change that paradigm and no longer accept that precept as the norm, and demand that the technology we purchase, maintain and secure at great expense to our organizations be secure by design and default — as CISA Director Jen Easterly has so prominently expressed. We simply can’t afford to continue to pay the ‘technology security tax.’”

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.