Healthcare: Research Data and PII Continuously Targeted by Multiple
Threat ActorsThe healthcare industry faces a range of threat groups and malicious
activity. Given the critical role that healthcare plays within society
and its relationship with our most sensitive information, the risk to
this sector is especially consequential. It may also be one of the
major reasons why we find healthcare to be one of the most retargeted industries.
In our new report, href="https://content.fireeye.com/cyber-security-for-healthcare/rpt-beyond-compliance-cyber-threats-and-healthcare">Beyond
Compliance: Cyber Threats and Healthcare, we share an
update on the types of threats observed affecting healthcare
organizations: from criminal targeting of patient data to less
frequent – but still high impact – cyber espionage intrusions, as well
as disruptive and destructive threats. We urge you to review the full
report for these insights, however, these are two key areas to keep in mind.
Chinese espionage targeting of medical researchers: We’ve
seen medical research – specifically cancer research – continue to
be a focus of multiple Chinese espionage groups. While difficult to
fully assess the extent, years of cyber-enabled theft of research
trial data might be starting to have an impact, as href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-04/china-s-revolutionary-cancer-drugs-undercut-american-competitors">Chinese
companies are reportedly now manufacturing cancer drugs at a
lower cost to Western firms.
Healthcare databases for sale under $2,000: The sheer number
of healthcare-associated databases for sale in the underground is
outrageous. Even more concerning, many of these databases can be
purchased for under $2,000 dollars (based on sales we observed over
a six-month period).
To learn more about the types of financially motivated cyber threat
activity impacting healthcare organizations, nation state threats the
healthcare sector should be aware of, and how the threat landscape is
expected to evolve in the future, check out the href="https://content.fireeye.com/cyber-security-for-healthcare/rpt-beyond-compliance-cyber-threats-and-healthcare">full
report here, or give a listen to this href="https://www.hipcast.com/podcast/Hz96Gr6s">podcast
conversation between Principal Analyst Luke McNamara and Grady
Summers, EVP, Products:
For more details around an actor who has targeted healthcare, href="https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2019/08/apt41-dual-espionage-and-cyber-crime-operation.html">read
about our newly revealed APT group, APT41.
Source:
Healthcare: Research Data and PII Continuously Targeted by Multiple
Threat Actors
