Cyberattacks Target Healthcare Orgs on Coronavirus Frontlines

silversurfer

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Aug 17, 2014
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Recent malware campaigns reveal that cybercriminals aren’t sparing healthcare firms, medical suppliers and hospitals on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic.

Researchers have shed light on two recently uncovered malware campaigns: one targeting a Canadian government healthcare organization and a Canadian medical research university, and the other hitting medical organizations and medical research facilities worldwide.

The emails sent to these unnamed organizations purported to send COVID-19 medical supply data, critical corporate communications regarding the virus or coronavirus details from the World Health Organization (WHO) – but actually aimed to distribute ransomware, infostealer malware and more.

These recent campaigns are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cybercrime targeting organizations in the healthcare space, researchers said. “Despite prior reporting by various sources indicating that some cyber-threat attacker activity may subside in some respects during the COVID-19 pandemic, Unit 42 has observed quite the opposite with regard to COVID-19 themed threats, particularly in the realm of phishing attacks,” said Adrian McCabe, Vicky Ray and Juan Cortes, security researchers with Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 team, in a Tuesday post.
 

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