Focus: Cybersecurity

Ransomware Attack Leads To Death Of Patient In Germany

Woman died after being diverted to facility 20 miles away when hackers shut down hospital where she was being admitted


A woman in Germany died because the Duesseldorf University Hospital was hit by a ransomware attack couldn’t accept emergency patients, so she was sent to another facility 20 miles away, according to an article on the Campus Safety website.

According to the Associated Press, hackers were able to gain access to the system via weak spot in some unidentified commercial add-on software.

Thirty servers at the hospital were encrypted and an extortion note left on one of the them.

Cyberattacks are increasing during the coronavirus crisis. Cybersecurity company Bitdefender found that pandemic-related attacks increased five-fold in the first two weeks of March. In May and June, an average of 60 percent of all received emails were phony, the article said.

In early April, Interpol warned of increasing ransomware attacks targeting hospitals, knowing the facilities are preoccupied and vulnerable, according to an article on the Security Boulevard website.

Read the full Campus Safety article.

 

 



September 29, 2020


Topic Area: Information Technology


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