The healthcare sector has always been a lucrative target for cybercriminals as it possesses a vast trove of patients’ data. Unfortunately, the current COVID-19 outbreak has become one of the major reasons for medical treatment facilities to protect their patients’ health data as the number of coronavirus-infected patients increase.
Zooming in on healthcare breaches
According to the HHS Breaches database, about 143 breaches have been reported so far in 2020 affecting the PHI of an estimated 3.3 million individuals. Some of the major data breaches from the first quarter of the year included:
The one threat that doesn't go away
With the healthcare industry under time constraints and pressure due to the ongoing pandemic, hackers are counting on the organizations to pay ransoms to recover their critical systems storing patients’ data and to prevent disruption to patient care.
Below mentioned are some prominent ransomware attacks that targeted healthcare, and related firms amidst the COVID-19 pandemic:
Maze actors stole and encrypted medical data of thousands of patients belonging to Hammersmith Medicines Research LTD, the UK-based drug testing company, and then published the data after the failed ransom payment negotiations.Bitcoin ransomware Ryuk targeted 10 healthcare organizations over the past three months despite most of them being daily flooded with fresh COVID-19 cases.
Colorado-based Parkview Medical Center’s technology infrastructure was forced to shut down its IT systems after it was hit by ransomware on April 21, 2020.
A potential ransomware attack at Brandywine U ..
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