Agencies warn of accelerating attacks on health care by Black Basta ransomware group

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Department of Health and Human Services, and Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center May 10 released a joint cybersecurity advisory to provide information on Black Basta, a ransomware variant whose actors have encrypted and stolen data from at least 12 out of 16 critical infrastructure sectors, including the health care and public health sector.

AHA members received a Cybersecurity Advisory with details on the threat, along with technical mitigation recommendations. Hospitals are urged to share this information with their IT and cyber infrastructure teams.

“Recent actionable cyber threat intelligence provided by our partners at federal agencies and the Health-ISAC indicate that this known Russian-speaking ransomware gang is actively targeting the U.S. and global health care sector with high-impact ransomware attacks designed to disrupt operations,” said John Riggi, AHA’s national advisor for cybersecurity and risk. “It is recommended that this alert be reviewed with high urgency and the identified ransomware signatures be immediately loaded into network defenses and threat hunting tools. It is also recommended that the identified cyber risk mitigation practices be implemented as soon as feasible.”