Global computing conglomerate Microsoft is notifying hospitals that are vulnerable to ransomware attacks to help prevent healthcare institutions from becoming overwhelmed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The firm also published<\/a> recommendations to hospitals for securing their systems and preventing ransomware attacks on April 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Through the company\u2019s network of threat intelligence analysts, Microsoft states that it \u201cidentified several dozens of hospitals\u201d with vulnerable virtual private networks and other public-facing gateway applications in their systems: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDuring this time of crisis, as organizations have moved to a remote workforce, ransomware operators have found a practical target: network devices like gateway and virtual private network (VPN) appliances. Unfortunately, one sector that\u2019s particularly exposed to these attacks is healthcare.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The document cites REvil as an egregious offender of targeting hospitals during the coronavirus crisis, while Cointelegraph has covered<\/a> the recent prevalence of Ryuk attacks targeting healthcare organizations struggling amid the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Microsoft distributed \u201cfirst-of-its-kind\u201d targeted notifications to the hospitals containing \u201cimportant information about the vulnerabilities, how attackers can take advantage of them, and a strong recommendation to apply security updates that will protect them from exploits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hospitals were recommended to ensure regular updates for VPN and firewall configurations, greater monitoring of remote access infrastructure, and strengthened protocols for responding to breaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They are advised to seek greater engagement with operational security professionals and to schedule regular audits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Microsoft is also participating in the “Tech Against Corona<\/a>” initiative alongside roughly a dozen tech companies to freely provide technology to the Dutch government to fight coronavirus \u2014 which includes efforts to help hospitals fight ransomware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some ransomware and darknet marketplace operators have taken a rare moral stance amid COVID-19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The operators of both Maze and DoppelPaymer have claimed<\/a> that they will not launch ransomware attacks targeting hospitals during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anonymous free-market Monopoly has also announced it will permanently ban all vendors caught using COVID-19 as a \u201cmarketing tool\u201d \u2014 including selling purported coronavirus treatments, facemasks and toilet paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dark web analysis firm Digital Shadows also found that the darknet community has exhibited \u201catypical\u201d behavior in recent weeks, such as \u201cdiscouraging other users from profiting off the pandemic, and \u201cproviding health and safety information.\u201d Global computing conglomerate Microsoft is notifying hospitals that are vulnerable to ransomware attacks to help prevent healthcare institutions from becoming overwhelmed amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The firm also published recommendations to hospitals for securing their systems and preventing ransomware attacks on April 1. Through the company\u2019s network of threat intelligence analysts, Microsoft states that it \u201cidentified several […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamas.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamas.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamas.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamas.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamas.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adamas.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":721,"href":"https:\/\/adamas.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions\/721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamas.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamas.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamas.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamas.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Hospitals encouraged to engage opsec specialists<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Maze and DoppelPaymer pledge not to attack hospitals<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Source: https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/microsoft-helps-hospitals-fight-ransomware-amid-coronavirus-pandemic<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"