Hospitals Hacked: Bipartisan Senators Urge Top Cybersecurity Officials to Protect Public Health Institutions From Foreign Adversaries and Cybercrime
“[H]acking attempts pose an alarming risk of disrupting or undermining our public health response at this time of crisis.”
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Following reports of escalating foreign cyber espionage and cybercrime targeting American health institutions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Mark Warner (D-VA), David Perdue (R-GA), and Edward J. Markey (D-MA) called on top U.S. cybersecurity officials to take immediate steps to bolster defenses, coordinate with hospitals, and engage in deterrence against such attacks.
The bipartisan group of Senators wrote to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and United States Cyber Command after reports that Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and criminal groups have launched hacking campaigns targeting the U.S. health care and medical research sectors in recent weeks. These malicious campaigns included ransomware attacks hitting hospitals, disinformation about health related to COVID-19, and spying on U.S. medical response and research.
“[O]ur country’s healthcare, public health, and research sectors are facing an unprecedented and perilous campaign of sophisticated hacking operations from state and criminal actors amid the coronavirus pandemic,” wrote the Senators in a letter to CISA Director Christopher Krebs and Cyber Command Commander Paul Nakasone. “Disinformation, disabled computers, and disrupted communications due to ransomware, denial of service attacks, and intrusions means critical lost time and diverted resources. During this moment of national crisis, the cybersecurity and digital resilience of our healthcare, public health, and research sectors are literally matters of life-or-death.”
The Senators urged the agencies to make cyber threat information public to enable better defensive efforts, as well as raise public alarm and issue statements putting adversaries on notice. The Senators also called on the agencies to provide technical assistance to help states in their cybersecurity efforts, convene stakeholders in the medical sector to make sure they have the necessary resources, and engage in deterrence actions as necessary.
The full text of the letter is available here,
-30-
