Cybersecurity experts are warning that hospitals around the country are at risk for attacks like the one that is crippling operations at a premier Midwestern children’s hospital and that the US government is doing too little to prevent such breaches. Hospitals in recent years have shifted their use of online technology to support everything from telehealth to medical devices to patient records. Today, they are a favorite target for internet thieves who hold systems’ data and networks hostage f
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A criminal ransomware network connected to a cyber-attack inside numerous US hospitals has been taken down by the FBI, according to a US Department of Justice press release. The attack hit over 200,000 computers across the US and cost hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. The FBI called it a duck hunt taking down the hacking network called Qakbot. “Qackbot is one of the most successful persistent and notorious botnets in the globe,” said US Attorney Martin Estrada. “Stopping cybercrime i
North Rhine-Westphalia Polizei reported on 06 March 2023, that they have disrupted an international cybercrime gang which has been blackmailing large companies and institutions for years, raking in millions of euros and US Dollars. Working with law enforcement partners including Europol, the US FBI and authorities in Ukraine, police in Duesseldorf said they were able to identify 11 individuals linked to a group that has operated in various guises since at least 2010.
The gang allegedly behind t
A pro-Russian hacking group is claiming responsibility for cyber-attacks on several hospitals in the United States. The attack came just days after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it took down a ransomware group that was also targeting hospitals in what was called “The Hive” attack.
The US Attorney General says they’ve seen how cyber-attacks on medical facilities can be very disruptive. “The Hive ransomware attack was able to prevent the hospital from accepting new patients,” th
Hospitals on the front line of cyberattacks are increasingly strained under the often deadly conditions created by such hacks. Capitalizing on the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, cyber criminals frequently shut down hospital networks at a time when they were overwhelmed, leading to limited emergency services, canceled surgeries, and a spike in deaths. Hackers used to treat hospitals as ‘off limits.’ Not the case anymore.
Cyber-attacks have long been viewed as less lethal than missile strikes,
There has been a very disturbing trend of criminal hackers targeting healthcare providers and directly at hospitals. The NHS system in the UK was recently attacked, numerous healthcare and hospitals in the US and now in Australia. What was once a “white collar crime” of only attacking financial institutions, these cyber-attacks are compromising the health and safety of people around the globe. Health insurer Medibank Private says it has been hit by a cyber-attack.
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In the US, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued an alert on 20 May regarding “Conti,” a highly disruptive ransomware variant. Cyber-attacks associated with Conti and the previously published Darkside ransomware variant are believed to be emanating from criminal networks operating from a non-cooperative foreign jurisdiction. The FBI says it identified at least 16 Conti ransomware attacks targeting US health care and first responder networks, including law enforcement agencies, emerg
