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In light of the large number of people infected with the coronavirus for treatment, hospitals and healthcare facilities have become a popular target for hackers using malicious software, especially with the aim of financial extortion.
Hackers are betting on the fact that these institutions will not risk refusing to pay ransoms and face potentially dire consequences for patients as the epidemic begins to spread again in Europe and the United States.
The alarm sounded Wednesday after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US Department of the Interior and Health said they had reliable information indicating an “imminent electronic threat against US hospitals and healthcare providers.”
The United States has asked health institutions to “take adequate precautions quickly to protect their computer networks.”
Cyber attacks occur through the use of ransomware (“ransomware”), which is a type of malicious program that prevents access to a website or computer until the victim sends a sum of money.
The University of Vermont Hospital, which was affected by the attack, said it was cooperating with authorities in a “cyber attack, claiming an impact on some of our systems” with “varying effects” on the care provided to patients.
People will die
Daniel dos Santos, from the “Forskout” Foundation for Electronic Security, said that some 400 hospitals have been the victims of hacking of their information systems in recent weeks in the United States and Great Britain.
“Cutting off care for sick people means that people will die,” he added.
And health sites cannot accept the fact that their information systems will be inaccessible for a longer period because that means redoing everything manually, “which can cause a significant slowdown” in service delivery, the expert said. .
The hospital sector has weak information systems because it uses medical devices, such as scanners, which are considered “weak links in the network” because it transmits data over insecure channels.
In a report, dos Santos and his colleagues noted that they had discovered data on the Internet about three million American patients that “are unprotected and can be accessed by anyone after conducting searches.”
Not pay the ransom
An investigation by the security firm Check Point showed that healthcare is the sector most targeted by hackers, with their attacks on US institutions in October increasing by 71 percent.
The company claimed that there is also a sharp increase in cyber attacks on hospitals in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The company confirmed that cyberattacks seeking extortion doubled in the third quarter compared to the first half of the year.
Many of these attacks use “Ryuk” malware linked to North Korean and Russian hackers.
According to the US authorities, they use sophisticated tools, including “Trickbot”, which is a network of computers affected by an electronic virus.
Trickbot, which appeared in 2016 as a virus attacking banks, has now become what is called “malware as a service” (“malware as a service”), which is a toolbox that cybercriminals rent to others. hackers who want to infiltrate a particular network or carry out an attack. electronic.
And the Canadian authorities warned through the “Cyber Center” in early October of the attacks by the Ryuk program, “which affects many (public) entities, including municipalities and health and safety organizations in Canada and abroad.”
“The problem with ransomware is that it is getting worse. A solution must be found as soon as possible,” said Brett Callow of cybersecurity company Emsisoft, calling for a ban on ransom payments.
He added that this type of attack “exists because it is profitable. If the money tap is turned off, these attacks will stop and hospitals will no longer be in danger.”
