The Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center highly recommends all health sector organizations immediately test and deploy a critical OpenSSL patch when it becomes available Nov. 1, because many of the most common operating systems and applications use the OpenSSL software library for secure communications.

“Once again we have ubiquitous, embedded third-party technology that is often out of view of the end users and cybersecurity teams creating cyber risk exposure for our hospitals and health systems,” said John Riggi, AHA’s national advisor for cybersecurity and risk. “This also highlights the ongoing need for a software bill of materials for medical devices and other pieces of mission-critical medical technology. Identifying instances of OpenSSL in your infrastructure will certainly help expedite deployment of the patch — remember the cyber ‘bad guys’ have the same notice of this vulnerability and now it’s a race to patch, before they exploit it.”

Related News Articles

Headline
Fernando Martinez, Ph.D., chief digital officer at the Texas Hospital Association, shares how Texas and the THA are building regional resilience through cyber…
Headline
The federal government shut down Oct. 1 following a failed Senate vote on the House-passed continuing resolution to fund the government by midnight Sept. 30.…
Headline
Microsoft Sept. 16 announced it had disrupted a growing phishing service that had targeted at least 20 U.S. health care organizations. The company said it used…
Headline
The FBI Sept. 12 released an alert warning of malicious activities by cybercriminal groups UNC6040 and UNC6395, which the agency said are responsible for an…
Headline
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, National Security Agency and international agencies Sept. 3 released joint guidance outlining a “software…
Headline
Chinese state-sponsored cyber actors are maliciously targeting networks globally, including telecommunications, government and others, according to a joint…