MedPage Today November 12, 2020
— Fake emails from bosses, messages about COVID, PPE, vaccines: “Doctors have fallen for it multiple times”
As healthcare systems cope with a surge in COVID-19 patients, they’re also dealing with an onslaught of ransomware attacks.
In late October, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued an alert that hackers using the “Ryuk” ransomware, which took in at least $61 million in the U.S. from 2018 to 2019, were targeting hospitals during the second COVID-19 surge.
While healthcare systems have worked to strengthen their defenses against such attacks, cybercriminals are still finding a way in, often via healthcare workers who fall for sophisticated spear phishing attacks. These aren’t Nigerian prince scams; fraudulent emails are targeted,...