Hospitals grapple with trickbot ransomware

A brand-new wave of infections is upon us, and U.S. authorities say it could get much worse, but it’s not due to the coronavirus. The latest onslaught to overtake the healthcare industry in the middle of a pandemic is a spike in ransomware security breaches. 

Hospitals and healthcare clinics are especially motivated to pay an immediate ransom because delivering urgent care requires access to healthcare records. Healthcare organizations are much better protected than most organizations against a ransomware attack because of security standards required by HIPAA compliance, and healthcare organizations recognize cyber attacks as one of the top three challenges facing their industry. In spite of being better prepared than most organizations, hospitals and healthcare clinics have been victims of the current wave of cyber attacks.

The culprits are ruthless, preying on healthcare providers. When a healthcare provider is breached, patient care is disrupted, which increases the urgency to pay off attackers. This is exactly what the criminal Russian gang, UNC 1878 (Wizard Spider), is banking on during a time when some hospitals are already feeling strained.

U.S. cybersecurity professionals and the FBI are warning of a trickbot trojan and Ryuk ransomware that is being used to seize healthcare providers’ information. As more and more healthcare companies fall prey to this morally inexcusable attack, Not only healthcare facilities, the FBI says ransomware attacks have been rising for several years against school districts, state and local governments and even law enforcement.