Cyber warning issued for key healthcare organisations in UK and US

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SECURITY AGENCIES in the UK and the United States have exposed malicious cyber campaigns deliberately targeting organisations involved in the Coronavirus response and delivered Best Practice advice in terms of how security and risk management professionals can keep those organisations safe.

An advisory for international healthcare and medical research organisations has been published, duly advising staff to change any passwords that could be reasonably guessed to one created with three random words and implement two-factor authentication in order to reduce the threat of compromises.

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the US Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have seen large-scale ‘password spraying’ campaigns against healthcare bodies and medical research organisations. The ‘advanced persistent threat’ (APT) groups target such bodies to collect bulk personal information, Intellectual Property and intelligence that aligns with national priorities.

Paul Chichester, director of operations at the NCSC, explained: “Protecting the healthcare sector is the NCSC’s first and foremost priority at this time, and we’re working…

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