The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a critical warning concerning targeted social engineering attacks aimed at IT help desks within the Healthcare and Public Health (HPH) sector. The Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) detailed how hackers are manipulating IT help desks using social engineering tactics to enroll their own multi-factor authentication (MFA) devices, thereby breaching organizational systems. By pretending to be employees in the financial department and furnishing stolen ID verification details, the threat actors dupe the helpdesk into enrolling a new device under their control, granting unauthorized access to corporate resources. Subsequently, the attackers direct bank transactions and engage in business email compromise attacks, emphasizing the severity of the threat.
The scams described in the alert closely resemble the modus operandi of the Scattered Spider threat group, recognized for employing a variety of techniques including phishing, MFA bombing, and SIM swapping to infiltrate networks and perpetrate cybercrimes. Of note, the attackers have been known to mimic IT employees to obtain credentials or induce customer service staff into breaching network security.
The alert emphasized the heightened need for vigilance in light of these tactics, urging organizations within the healthcare sector to implement specific security measures, such as requiring callbacks to verify password resets and new MFA devices, conducting stringent monitoring of ACH changes, and revalidating all users with access to payer websites.
