SYNOPSIS
Healthcare systems all over the world are being subject to attacks even as the fight against COVID-19 rages on. States need to take critical infrastructure protection – like healthcare systems – more seriously.
COMMENTARY
ON 16 APRIL 2020, Czech authorities warned its international allies of “imminent, large scale attacks on hospitals”. They know the effects of such an operation. Brno University Hospital, the second largest hospital in Czech Republic, has had to reschedule operations, relocate patients, and delay some COVID-19 test results due to a cyberattack in mid-March 2020.
EUROPOL has confirmed that almost all of its 27 member countries have reported intensifying cyberattacks on its healthcare systems. Criminal hacker groups have demanded ransom from hospitals dealing with overload from coronavirus patients by locking their patient records, and threatening to publish these records online. This causes further unwanted strain on healthcare systems. This trend of cyberattacks done by criminal hacker groups and possibly state-sponsored actors is set to continue.
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