Cyberattacks on healthcare organizations were reported despite the fact that these organizations are working day and night to give COVID-19 patients their needed healthcare. These attacks not only cause serious disruption, but also possibly more damage and threat to patient safety considering the COVID-19 outbreak.
Plenty of phishing campaigns were found using the fear of COVID-19 as a lure to install malware. More than 2,000 coronavirus-themed domains had been registered. Most of these domain names were probably bought for executing malicious intentions.
For sure the cyberattacks will not stop. However, it would appear that some threat actors have chosen not to attack healthcare organizations that are treating patients now with the COVID-19 outbreak.
One threat group that confirmed it won’t attack hospitals and nursing homes was the group behind the DoppelPaymer ransomware. In the event that the group encrypts the data of a healthcare provider by mistake, it will decrypt the files at no cost. Pharmaceutical companies are not included in that offer. The Maze ransomware group, in the same way, indicated it will stop campaigns against healthcare providers until the pandemic stabilizes.
Free Ransomware Support for Healthcare Companies During the Coronavirus Pandemic
Quite a few cybersecurity organizations like Emsisoft and Awake Security are giving free help when healthcare companies are attacked by ransomware during the coronavirus outbreak.
Emsisoft helps ransomware victims with file recovery when the decryptors from attackers don’t work. Coveware is providing assistance in incident response. It serves as a middleman when ransomware victims decide to pay the attacker’s ransom demand. Emisoft and Coveware are partnering up to help hospitals and other healthcare vendors move on in the event of a ransomware attack. The two companies are providing the following services at no cost:
- ransomware attack technical analysis
- the development of a decryption tool
- arbitration if possible
- deal handing
- recovery support
Emsisoft is likewise creating a customized decryption tool to replace the one provided by the attackers to minimize file loss.
Awake Security stated that hospitals and other healthcare providers fighting the coronavirus pandemic can freely make use of its security platform for at least two months.
The security platform keeps track of networks and detects threats originating from non-traditional computing devices, remote users logging in to utilize VPNs, the core and border systems. The offer additionally includes Managed Detection and response solution free access to give non-stop threat monitoring, proactive intelligence-motivated threat research, and Awake Security support services access.
Akamai is offering two months of free access to its Business Continuity Assistance Program. SentinelOne is offering free endpoint protection as well as endpoint discovery until May 16, 2020. Cyber Risk Aware, on the other hand, is providing free COVID-19 phishing tests to help companies prepare their employees against phishing attacks wit coronavirus-theme. To aid in COVID-19-related healthcare communications, TigerConnect offered its safe and protect healthcare communications platform to be used for free in the United States.