Ransomware attack paralyzes German Hospital, causes patient death
By MYBRANDBOOK
A ransomware attack on the University Hospital of Düsseldorf (UKD) caused a failure of IT systems, resulting in the death of a woman who had to be sent to another hospital that was 20 miles away, confirmed German authorities.
The incident took place last week marks the first recorded casualty as a consequence of cyberattacks on critical healthcare facilities, which has ramped up in recent months.
The attack, which exploited a Citrix ADC CVE-2019-19781 vulnerability to cripple the hospital systems on September 10, is said to have been "misdirected" in that it was originally intended for Heinrich Heine University, according to an extortion note left by the perpetrators. After law enforcement contacted the threat actors and informed them that they had encrypted a hospital, the operators behind the attack withdrew the ransom demand and provided the decryption key.
The case is currently being treated as a homicide, as a news report. Although several ransomware gangs said early on in the pandemic that they would not deliberately target hospitals or medical facilities, the recurring attacks prompted the Interpol to issue a warning cautioning hospitals against ransomware attacks designed to lock them out of their critical systems in an attempt to extort payments.
Weak credentials and VPN vulnerabilities have proven to be a blessing in disguise for threat actors to break into the internal networks of businesses and organizations, leading cybersecurity agencies in the U.S. and U.K. to publish multiple advisories about active exploitation of the flaws.
"The [Federal Office for Information Security] is becoming increasingly aware of incidents in which Citrix systems were compromised before the security updates that were made available in January 2020 were installed," the German cybersecurity agency said in an alert last week.
"This means that attackers still have access to the system and the networks behind it even after the security gap have been closed. This possibility is currently increasingly being used to carry out attacks on affected organizations."
The development also coincides with a fresh advisory from the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which said it's observed an uptick in ransomware incidents targeting educational institutions at least since August 2020, while urging schools and universities to implement a "defence in depth" strategy to defend against such malware attacks.
Some of the affected institutions included Newcastle and Northumbria Universities, among others.
BHIM to join e-commerce, competing with PhonePe and Google Pay
The government-supported payment software BHIM is getting ready to join t...
The latest version of X helps prevent deepfakes on social medi
To combat deepfakes and shallowfakes, Elon Musk revealed a new update t...
India and Namibia collaborate on a payment system similar to U
Once operational, the platform will enable digital transactions in Namibia,...
Sebi issues show-cause notices to six Adani group firms
Sebi issued show-cause notices to six Adani Group firms, including Adani ...
VVDN TECHNOLOGIES
HIMACHAL FUTURISTIC COMMUNICATIONS LTD.
FIREBOLTT
CP PLUS INDIA PVT. LTD.
Technology Icons Of India 2023: Anant Maheshwari
As President of Microsoft India, he is responsible for Microsoft’s o...
Technology Icons Of India 2023: Sunil Bharti Mittal
Sunil Bharti Mittal is the Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises,...
Technology Icons Of India 2023: Dr. Sanjay Bahl
Sanjay Bahl is currently with the Indian Computer Emergency Response T...
C-DOT enabling India in indigenous design, development and production of telecom technologies
An autonomous telecom R&D centre of Government of India, Center of Dev...
STPI encouraging software exports from India
Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) is an S&T organization under...
ITI Limited widening its focus area
ITI Limited is a public sector undertaking company, has manufacturing ...
SATCOM INFOTECH PVT. LTD.
Satcom Infotech Pvt. Ltd is a distribution houses in security in India...
EXCLUSIVE NETWORKS SALES INDIA PVT. LTD.
Exclusive Networks is a globally trusted cybersecurity specialist hel...
SONATA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LIMITED
Sonata Software Limited is a leading Modernization engineering company...