Social engineering poses significant data security threats to healthcare and public sector entities, federal authorities warn, urging entities to take steps to avoid falling victim.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center in two advisories released late last week advise healthcare entities to stay attentive to and proactive against social engineering scams.
Such schemes were linked to about 45% of health data breaches in 2021, followed by ransomware attacks, HHS HC3 says.
In particular, HHS HC3 says it has seen a “marked increase” across many sectors, including healthcare, in attacks involving so-called vishing, or voice phishing – which is similar to email phishing, but often involves phone calls or email requests for unsuspecting users to call back the fraudsters or take other actions online.
