CISA warns of foreign actor conducting large-scale spear-phishing campaign with malicious files 

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Oct. 31 issued an alert on a large-scale spear-phishing campaign targeting organizations in several sectors. The agency received multiple reports on the matter. According to the agency, the foreign threat actor, often posing as a trusted entity, sends spear-phishing emails with malicious remote desktop protocol files to targeted organizations to connect to and access files stored on the target’s network. If the threat actor gains access, it could perform additional activities, such as deploying malicious code to achieve persistent access to the target’s network. CISA, other federal agencies and partners are coordinating and assessing the impact of the campaign and urged organizations to take proactive measures to protect their data and systems. 

"The malicious use of RDP to conduct cyberattacks, including highly disruptive ransomware attacks, continues to be a significant attack vector used by foreign cybercriminals, ransomware gangs and spies," said John Riggi, AHA national advisor for cybersecurity and risk. "To help mitigate this type of cyberattack risk, it is strongly recommended health care organizations restrict outbound RDP connections, block RDP connections in communication platforms, prevent execution of RDP files and use phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication for all remote access. Please review the alert for additional recommendations." 

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.