News Summary

• A new report says governments are increasingly empowering local cybercriminals to act as disposable extensions of state capability.
• The report stated that this fusion expands adversaries’ resources, provides plausible deniability, and accelerates attacks that can threaten clinical systems, revenue cycles, and third-party connections.
• For hospital IT leaders, that means financially motivated intrusions can pivot into data extortion or disruptive incidents that echo state priorities.
• The immediate defense agenda starts with prompt patching across servers, endpoints, VPNs, network gear, and IoT; strong MFA (preferably time-based codes); and unique passwords via a manager.