By HFT Staff

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently issued a “Shields Up” message to all U.S. organizations, including hospitals and other healthcare facilities. The message urges organizations to take immediate steps to enhance their ability to detect and protect against cyber intrusion. The action follows a state department advisory urging Americans to leave Ukraine due to increased threats of Russian military action.  

“While there are not currently any specific credible threats to the U.S. homeland, we are mindful of the potential for the Russian government to consider escalating its destabilizing actions in ways that may impact others outside of Ukraine,” according to the advisory. 

CISA recommends that organizations take the following steps to detect a potential intrusion: 

• Ensure that cybersecurity/IT personnel are focused on identifying and quickly assessing any unexpected or unusual network behavior. Enable logging in order to better investigate issues or events. 
• Confirm that the organization’s entire network is protected by antivirus and antimalware software and that signatures in these tools are updated. 
• If working with Ukranian organizations, take extra care to monitor, inspect and isolate traffic from those organizations, and closely review access controls for that traffic.  

More than 200 hospitals have become victims of cyber attacks in the last three years, but only 65 percent of healthcare facilities officials believe their organizations have appropriate security tools and resources to combat potential attacks.