Hackers pilfered about $7.5 million from HHS last year using a technique called "spearfishing," illustrating the continued cybersecurity threat facing healthcare, Bloomberg reported.
The cybercriminals accessed an HHS grant processing system and withdrew the money between March and November of 2023, according to the Jan. 18 story.
"As federal stewards of the taxpayer dollar, we take this issue with the utmost importance," an HHS spokesperson emailed the news outlet.
The threat actors used so-called "spearphishing" — hacking the grant awardees' emails and tricking the government into giving access to the grantees' accounts, according to Bloomberg. Many health system cyberattacks start with phishing. HHS itself warned the healthcare sector about the threat of phishing in October.