Health Information Compliance Alert

Published on Fri Jul 08, 2022 PDF

With cyberattacks in the healthcare industry increasing, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) expounds on a recent case with international implications.

Breakdown: A state-sponsored cyberattack against a children’s hospital in August 2021 was thwarted before the hospital’s network was compromised. “In the summer of 2021, hackers sponsored by the Iranian government tried to conduct one of the most despicable cyberattacks I’ve seen — right here in Boston — when they decided to go after Boston Children’s Hospital,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray in his June 1 remarks to the Boston Conference on Cyber Security 2022.

“We got a report from one of our intelligence partners indicating Boston Children’s was about to be targeted.

And, understanding the urgency of the situation, the cyber squad in our Boston Field Office raced to notify the hospital,” Wray said. According to news report from WCVB in Boston, FBI agents contacted the hospital on Aug. 3, 2021, and worked with hospital representatives over the next 10 days to respond to the threat.

On March 22, 2022, Wray referred to “hackers sponsored by the Iranian government compromised a U.S. children’s hospital,” in remarks delivered at the Detroit Economic Club. However, that was as specific as the FBI director was about the incident at that time.

“It’s a great example of why we deploy in the field the way we do, enabling that kind of immediate, before-catastrophe-strikes response,” Wray added in his June 1 speech.