By By Dan Hounsell

Even as healthcare organizations battle the COVID-19 pandemic, their IT managers must deal with a major bottom-line and privacy threat that is only growing worse — ransomware. The impact of ransomware attacks can be severe. Hospitals that do not pay the ransom risk having years of patient records becoming inaccessible, and attackers often act fast, with organizations sometimes experiencing the full lifecycle of an attack in just two days.

Now, the nonprofit Center for Internet Security (CIS) has launched a no-cost ransomware protection service for private hospitals in the United States, according to Healthcare IT News.  The Malicious Domain Blocking and Reporting (MDBR) service is already available for public hospitals, health departments and healthcare organizations. It proactively identifies, blocks and mitigates targeted threats.   

The no-cost service is already being offered through the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC). The center is funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and aims to improve the overall cybersecurity posture of the nation's state, local, tribal and territorial governments. 

According to CIS, more than 1,000 government organizations have successfully used MDBRto block more than 748 million requests for known and suspected malicious web domains since its inception.

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