Jul 6, 2022 - Technology

North Korean state-sponsored hackers targeting health sector, federal agencies warn

Julia Shapero

Photo: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

State-sponsored hackers from North Korea have been targeting health care organizations, a group of federal agencies warned on Wednesday.

Driving the news: The FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Treasury Department issued a joint advisory, warning that these cyber actors have been targeting health care organizations with ransomware — a type of computer code that encrypts a computer's files and renders them unusable until a ransom is paid.

These incidents, which have been occurring since May 2021, have disrupted health care services for "prolonged periods" of time, according to the advisory.
Since health care organizations provide services that are "critical to human life and health," North Korean hackers assume that they will be willing to pay ransoms, making them a continuing target, the advisory noted.

The federal agencies recommended that health care organizations maintain an offline backup of data to reduce downtime from a ransomware attack and preserve data.

They also recommended that organizations have a plan to respond to a ransomware incident, regularly update their systems, conduct user training and require multi-factor authentication as much as possible, among other recommendations.

But, but, but: The U.S. government is still woefully short of workers with needed cybersecurity skills.

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North Korean state-sponsored hackers targeting health sector, federal agencies warn

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