Since the arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, ransomware attacks have increased in 2020 against hospitals and healthcare providers in the United States. A recent report from a cybersecurity company confirms this upward trend. However, this phenomenon also impacts other countries such as Germany and France.
In November 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a memo calling for vigilance against ransomware attacks. The Russian botnet Trickbot was indeed behind such attacks targeting dozens of hospitals in the USA. Remember that this type of malware blocks machines and takes personal data hostage by encrypting it. Then, the owner receives a ransom demand in exchange for a key to decrypt the data to gain access again.
Almost a year after the appearance of the coronavirus pandemic, the FBI therefore evoked a threat of increased cybercrime and imminent for hospitals and other healthcare providers. However, Info Security Magazine confirmed this increase in an article published in January 2021. The media reported on a report by cybersecurity company Check Point, stipulating that ransomware attacks have increased twice as fast in the healthcare sector in the last two months of 2020.
Check Point experts mentioned DDos attacks, but above all pointed to intensive use of ransomware , including Sodinokibi and Ryuk software. In addition, the sums demanded by the hackers would have increased. Indeed, the amount was on average $5,000 in 2018 compared to $200,000 in 2020. In addition to the moral considerations surrounding these attacks, it is a global phenomenon requiring international collaboration . Other countries must indeed face this same threat.
In September 2020, the university clinic in Dusseldorf (Germany) fell victim to a ransomware attack. By paralyzing the computer system of the establishment, the hackers thus forced the transfer of a patient to another hospital for an operation. Unfortunately, this same patient died during transport.
In France, 2020 has been a difficult year, but the attacks are also continuing in 2021. In February, the hospitals of Dax (Landes) and that of Villefranche-sur-Saône (Rhône) were affected. No deaths were reported, but during the paralysis, patient care had to be done in degraded mode. In addition, these institutions have lost data, including numerous patient records.
