Coronavirus chaos ripe for hackers to exploit medical device vulnerabilities
MEDTECHDIVE
Greg Slabodkin
While cyber experts and law enforcement have been raising the red flag for years about the security vulnerabilities of networked medical devices in healthcare, the chaos of the coronavirus pandemic has created the perfect storm for hackers to exploit these weaknesses.
As crowded hospital emergency rooms and ICUs in major U.S. cities try to keep up with demand for medical services, the networks of these healthcare organizations face a rising threat level from cybercriminals probing for weaknesses. Interpol on Saturday issued an alert warning that cybercriminals are using ransomware to target healthcare organizations already overwhelmed by COVID-19 and noted a significant increase in detected health system attacks since the start of the pandemic.
Cybercriminals are “using