Hackers have compromised healthcare systems, as indicated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). They warn that cybercriminals have managed to access the processors and change the route of payments to accounts they manage. This attack has become very common this year since, according to expert firms and the FBI’s cybercrime division calculations, more than $4.6 million has already been stolen. Learn more about it in this article.
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Employees of healthcare systems are deceived
Cybercriminals manage to deceive employees of different healthcare systems by using several techniques, from phishing to social engineering. According to Bleeping Computer: “The FBI says that it received multiple reports where hackers are using publicly available personal details and social engineering to impersonate victims with access to healthcare portals, websites, and payment information.”
In this way, they get the victims to give them their credentials or access to the systems, so they change the instructions of various healthcare services’ payment methods. This is how they manage to get these payments to accounts managed by them. This year alone, they have stolen many millions of dollars.
An example of this is that, in February, a cybercriminal managed to get hold of the credentials of a major healthcare company, changing the data of direct deposits made by a hospital that had accounts and relationships with this company. Thus, they were able to get $3.1 million in their account. During the same month, a similar attack occurred at another company, where $700,000 was stolen.
Fast forward to April, a company with more than 175 medical providers lost $840,000 thanks to a cybercriminal seizing an employee’s credentials and changing the Automated Clearing House (ACH) instructions. But as the FBI specifies, they are not new incidents; they are actually very common. Between 2018 and 2019, more than 65 healthcare services were victims of attacks with the same methods.
As always, the FBI and cybersecurity experts reiterate the same measures to protect themselves from these attacks. From any unusual activity on the servers to several attempts to change passwords in the credentials of any employee. Another excellent tip is to hire good cybersecurity services, such as those offered by Eagle Tech Corp; we are here to serve you!
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Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash.
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