As hospitals around the world are struggling to respond to the coronavirus crisis, cybercriminals—with no conscience and empathy—are continuously targeting healthcare organisations, research facilities, and other governmental organisations with ransomware and malicious information stealers.
The new research, published by Palo Alto Networks and shared with The Hacker News, confirmed that “the threat actors who profit from cybercrime will go to any extent, including targeting organisations that are in the front lines and responding to the pandemic on a daily basis.”
While the security firm didn’t name the latest victims, it said a Canadian government healthcare organisation and a Canadian medical research university both suffered ransomware attacks, as criminal groups seek to exploit the crisis for financial gain.
The attacks were detected between March 24 and March 26 and were initiated as part of the coronavirus-themed phishing campaigns that have become widespread in recent months.
Palo Alto Networks’ disclosure comes as The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), biotechnology firm 10x Genomics, Brno University Hospital in the Czech Republic, and Hammersmith Medicines Research have been hit by cyberattacks in the past few weeks.
images from Hacker News
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