The Department of Health and Human Services Oct. 6 urged health care organizations to patch a critical vulnerability in Cisco’s Emergency Responder communications platform that allows a cyberattacker to completely compromise a vulnerable system and use it for further attacks across an enterprise network. HHS’ Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) recommends health care organizations identify vulnerable systems in their infrastructure and prioritize the software update.

“This is another example of cyber adversaries exploiting vulnerabilities in our mission-critical third-party technology to gain access to our networks,” said John Riggi, AHA’s national advisor for cybersecurity and risk. “Cisco’s Emergency Responder platform functions as a layer on top of Cisco’s Unified Communications Manager, which runs 85 million Voice over IP phones, including ones installed in hospitals and health systems. Patching this critical vulnerability is essential to ensure the security of communications systems and prevent malicious remote access to hospital and health system computer networks.” 

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 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…
Headline
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency April 17 released guidance to reduce risks associated with a reported breach of Oracle cloud services.…
Headline
The National Counterintelligence and Security Center, the FBI, and the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Center yesterday released guidance on…
AHA Cyber Intel
While the rate of cyberattacks on hospitals has risen dramatically, the severity of the impacts has also grown exponentially. Let’s look at the state of cyber…
Headline
The House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee April 1 discussed cybersecurity threats in legacy medical devices during a hearing. The…