The Rise of Social Engineering Across Healthcare | Huntress

This report explains how increasingly sophisticated social engineering—phishing (including SMSishing), business email compromise, and vishing—targets healthcare to steal data, enable fraud, and disrupt patient care, aided by generative AI and help-desk impersonation tactics. It advocates a defense-in-depth strategy combining multi-factor authentication, managed detection and response for Microsoft 365 with 24/7 SOC monitoring, and security awareness training with phishing simulations and coaching. A brief case study illustrates MDR detecting malicious inbox rules in a CEO’s account and preventing financial fraud, underscoring the need for continuous monitoring and user-focused defenses.