Hospitals brace for increase in cyberattacks

Cyberattacks
Cyberattacks

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc, another danger comes to the forefront from the cyber world. 

Multiple reports have cropped since January from around the globe of hackers locking up hospitals’ networks and demanding ransom in return for access to the system. 

In response to these cyberattacks, Sen. Michael Bennett has invoked the Department of Homeland Security to protect these Healthcare agencies from their virtual predators. 

Reportedly, INTERPOL has also been involved in tracing these cyber crimes as they had warned their 194 member countries of these attacks back in March. 

Some of the victims of these Ransomware attacks are Illinois public health district, a hospital in the Czech Republic and some more health care facilities from the United Kingdom. 

The public health district in Illinois has reportedly paid $350,000 to the hackers to regain access to their system. 

This is not the first time virtual predators have targeted healthcare facilities. Back in 2017, around 300,000 online systems were hacked by “WannaCry 2.0”, a North Korean backed ransomware virus. 

Several cybersecurity and software groups, including Microsoft, have come forward to offer free services to all the vulnerable hospitals

source