With the presidential election underway, the head of the agency that describes itself as the nation’s risk adviser said protecting the health care sector as it comes under ransomware attacks during the public health crisis is right up there with safeguarding democracy.
“Seeing how much ransomware was affecting the public health sector, we could absorb within the system a hospital or two hospitals prior to COVID, but with COVID, you know, New York City could not lose any capacity at all in April or May,” CISA Director Christopher Krebs said. “We brought in a whole range of folks that are just allowing us to really jump start a new initiative that, as I look at it ... is as important as our election security initiative.”
Krebs spoke Tuesday during an event to observe Cybersecurity Awareness Month. He reiterated his confidence in the preparations his agency has been working to put in place over the last three and a half years, following Russia’s attempt to interfere with the 2016 election.
“Our protect 2020 slogan is not something that we kicked off a month ago or even January of 2020,” he said. “We have a community where we can share information and make sure we’re on top of the latest threats.”
Krebs added that he feels better about the election security initiative—working with partners in the intelligence community and state and local governments—than anything else he’s worked on as part of the government.
He remains concerned, however, about the ability of the nation’s health care facilities to support a population especially in need of their services while suffering a barrage of debilitating cyberattacks.
“The concept we’ve taken is that whether it was therapeuti ..
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