HHS puts $50M toward hospitals’ ransomware fight


A new agency within the National Institutes of Health is launching a $50 million initiative to develop tools for hospital IT teams that enhance their cybersecurity measures and resources to combat ransomware.

On May 20, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health introduced its Universal PatchinG and Remediation for Autonomous DEfense, or UPGRADE, program. “What if every hospital could autonomously protect itself and patients from cyber threats?” That is the guiding question for the initiative, which aims to develop a tailored and scalable software suite of remediations and patches for hospitals, reducing the patching time for vulnerable healthcare products to days or weeks.

Read more…
Source: Backer’s Health IT


Sign up for our Newsletter


Related:

  • US federal payroll agency hacked using SolarWinds software flaw

    February 2, 2021

    The FBI has discovered that the National Finance Center (NFC), a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) federal payroll agency, was compromised by exploiting a SolarWinds Orion software flaw, according to a Reuters report. NFC provides human resources and payroll services to roughly 170 federal agencies and over 650,000 federal employees since 1973. The software vulnerability used to ...

  • Minnesota: Netgain ransomware incident impacts local governments

    February 2, 2021

    The ransomware incident that Netgain, a provider of managed IT services, had late last year rippled onto its customers. Now, Ramsey County, Minnesota, is informing clients of the Family Health Division program that the hackers may have accessed personal data. The government of Ramsey County learned about the potential breach on December 2, 2020, when Netagin ...

  • World’s Most Dangerous Malware Emotet Disrupted Through Global Action

    January 27, 2021

    Law enforcement and judicial authorities worldwide have this week disrupted one of most significant botnets of the past decade: EMOTET. Investigators have now taken control of its infrastructure in an international coordinated action. This operation is the result of a collaborative effort between authorities in the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Lithuania, ...

  • US Department of Justice Launches Global Action Against NetWalker Ransomware

    January 27, 2021

    The Department of Justice today announced a coordinated international law enforcement action to disrupt a sophisticated form of ransomware known as NetWalker. NetWalker ransomware has impacted numerous victims, including companies, municipalities, hospitals, law enforcement, emergency services, school districts, colleges, and universities. Attacks have specifically targeted the healthcare sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, taking advantage of the ...

  • Russian government warns of US retaliatory cyberattacks

    January 23, 2021

    The Russian government has issued a security warning to organizations in Russia about possible retaliatory cyberattacks by the USA for the SolarWinds breach. Last month, the SolarWinds network management company disclosed that they suffered a sophisticated cyberattack that led to a supply chain attack affecting 18,000 customers. The US government believes that this attack was conducted by ...

  • Rob Joyce to Take Over as NSA Cybersecurity Director

    January 19, 2021

    As the incoming Biden administration continues to shake up federal leadership, the National Security Agency announced Friday that Rob Joyce, who is currently serving at the U.S. Embassy in London, was named to lead its cybersecurity division. Joyce will inherit the job from Anne Neuberger, who will leave the post to serve as deputy national security ...