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The FBI Nov. 7 recommended organizations take certain steps to prevent ransomware actors from exploiting vulnerabilities in third-party and system management tools, an emerging trend.

“Although health care is not specifically mentioned in this advisory, it serves as a good reminder that third-party tools, technology and services continue to be a major contributing factor in some of the largest data breaches and ransomware attacks impacting hospitals and health systems,” said John Riggi, AHA’s national advisor for cybersecurity and risk. “The advisory points out that our cyber adversaries combine social engineering and legitimate third-party technology tools for maximum effect, and provides a number of clearly defined defensive measures applicable to health care. We also recommend organizations establish a multidisciplinary risk management governance committee to help identify and manage cyber risk related to embedded third-party technology, clinical and operational risk related to dependency on that technology and potential risk from third-party artificial intelligence.” 

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.