Cyberattacks are having fatal consequences, so the White House wants hospital funding tied to hospital security

Date:
Wed, 10 Jan 2024 16:33:26 +0000

Description:
The White House is looking to stop hospitals from bleeding data, but will a cyber tourniquet be enough?

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The Biden administration is looking to introduce a policy that will require
US hospitals to meet a certain level of digital security, including multi-factor authentication , in order to secure federal funding.

A number of attacks in recent months have severely impacted hospitals,
forcing ambulances to be diverted and non-urgent procedures to be
rescheduled.

Hospitals are already bound by a number of requirements relating to building construction, security and how patients are treated in order to secure funding. Basic cyber hygiene

Hospitals are lucrative targets for ransomware attacks due to the sensitivity and amount of data stored on their systems, and often lack the robust
security structure needed to keep cybercriminals out of their systems. The increasing complexity and number of network enabled devices used in medical procedures and patient care increases the vulnerability of hospitals to cyber attacks.

Thats why establishing this basic level of cyber security as a prerequisite for federal funding is seen as a necessary step in preventing cyber attacks against hospitals. Introducing measures such as multi-factor authentication
to hospital devices alongside software update timelines can stem the flow of attacks.

An anonymous senior administration official told The Messenger that the government is homing in on those key cybersecurity practices that we really
do believe bring a meaningful impact. It is expected that this policy will come into effect at some point this year.

The rules for basic cybersecurity are to be proposed in the near future by
the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and will hopefully work in combination with the International Counter-Ransomware Initiatives pledge of non-payment to ransomware attacks that target government institutions.

Recent studies have shown that cyber attacks on hospitals can have real-world effects on patient health, with a 2022 study finding that some hospitals reported an increase in patient mortality following cyber attacks on IoT devices. More from TechRadar Pro Take a look at our rankings of the best firewall software LockBit ransomware hits another US healthcare firm, threatens to leak customer data Entire Brazilian population potentially put
at risk by major data leak






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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/cyberattacks-are-having-fatal-consequences-so-th e-white-house-wants-hospital-funding-tied-to-hospital-security


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