Coronavirus-linked hacks likely as Czech hospital comes under attack

By Alex Scroxton for ComputerWeekly
Friday, March 13, 2020

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As countries around Europe enact drastic measures to try to contain the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus, a hospital in Brno, Czechia, has been forced to cancel all planned operations and farm out acute patients to other hospitals after falling victim to a major cyber attack.

Ilia Kolochenko, founder and CEO of web security specialist ImmuniWeb, said that even experienced cyber security professionals could be taken in by a well-crafted phishing email that plays on fear and emotion.

“The more emotions and personal matters the attackers leverage, the more successful their campaigns will likely be,” he said. “The human factor remains the most burdensome to mitigate by technical means among the wide spectrum of organisational cyber risks, and the Covid-19 connection makes victims particularly susceptible to thoughtless actions.

“Organisations should urgently consider implementing and promulgating a clear, centralised and consistent internal process to communicate all the events and precautions related to the coronavirus pandemic. Corporate cyber security and security awareness should constitute an invaluable part of such communications, as cyber criminals are profiteering from obscurity and uncertainty.”

Up to now, as reported by Computer Weekly, most security incidents linked to the coronavirus have taken the form of online fraud and scams, disinformation and conspiracy theories, and hoax emails – phishing campaigns targeting victims with apparently legitimate information. Read Full Article