The American Hospital Association (AHA) is advising hospitals and healthcare entities to “take precautionary measures in case Iran, its proxies or self-radicalized individuals attempt attacks in the U.S.” during the conflict between Israel, the United States and Iran. The precautionary measures include strengthening cybersecurity and physical security measures.
Although the AHA is unaware of any specific credible threats against U.S. based healthcare organizations, adversaries of the United States are known to attack critical infrastructure, including healthcare organizations, during geopolitical conflicts. In the past, nation state adversaries use cyber proxies or hacktivist groups to disrupt critical infrastructure during conflicts, and concern is heightened that such disruption could occur during this current conflict with Iran.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Department of Defense and the National Security Agency have also recently issued a joint Fact Sheet warning critical infrastructure organizations to review cybersecurity protections in light of geopolitical tensions involving Iran. The fact sheet “details the need for increased vigilance for potential cyber activity against U.S. critical infrastructure by Iranian state-sponsored or affiliated threat actors.”
The fact sheet “urges owners and operators of critical infrastructure organizations and other potentially targeted entities to review this fact sheet to learn more about the Iranian state-backed cyber threat and actionable mitigations to harden cyber defenses.” Reviewing the fact sheet and implementing the mitigations should be a high priority for all critical infrastructure organizations.
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