FBI's No. 2 calls on hospitals to share cyberthreat info

The FBI's No. 2 official told hospital executives Tuesday they need to step up information-sharing on cyberthreats as the agency works to disrupt attacks earlier.

Why it matters: Health care was the top target for ransomware and other cyberthreats last year, according to FBI statistics. Data breaches and attacks on hospitals shut down operations, delay time-sensitive treatment and risk harm to patients, and also cost health systems millions per incident.

Driving the news: FBI deputy director Andrew Bailey, a former Missouri attorney general, framed the threat through a law enforcement lens, emphasizing the disruption of criminal networks, "not just arrests and indictments."

• "We have to go on offense and disrupt the ecosystem that allows perpetrators to exist," Bailey told the American Hospital Association meeting in Washington, D.C.
• Bailey emphasized the need for close coordination with hospitals, including sharing threat intelligence to identify attacks earlier.

Between the lines: He pointed specifically to the threat of attacks by Russian-speaking "ransomware as a service" groups that operate with safe harbor from the Russian government.

• "We're at a point where they're attacking a hospital system and it's just normal, everyday routine transactions for these groups," he said. "For the hospital on the receiving end ... it's anything but."
• Major cyberattacks in 2025 hit Yale New Haven Health System and kidney care giant DaVita, among other providers.