Hackers ‘without conscience’ demand ransom from health providers

A laptop displays a message after being infected by a ransomware. At a time when they are struggling to handle an influx of patients suffering from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, health-care providers and medical facilities in the US and Europe have seen a surge of ransomware attacks, as criminal groups seek to exploit the crisis to hit the sector when it’s at its most desperate, according to several cybersecurity experts. — AFP

When hackers broke into computers at Hammersmith Medicines Research, a London-based company that carries out clinical trials for new medicines, it was a nightmare scenario for managing director Malcolm Boyce.

The coronavirus crisis was just beginning to take hold in the UK, and the company was in talks with other firms about potentially testing a vaccine. The hackers used encryption to lock down thousands of the company’s patient records and promised to publish them online if a ransom wasn’t paid.