Ransomware attack responsible for woman’s death after infecting hospital

While cyber crooks are frequently wanted by the police for crimes related to computer misuse, a group of such criminals are now wanted on charges far more serious, after a woman in Germany has died after the hospital she was taken to for a life-saving operation fell victim to their ransomware attack.

The incident, that happened at Duesseldorf Hospital in Germany is being described as the first death of a person indirectly killed by ransomware.

Duesseldorf Hospital was crippled by a ransomware attack for around a week from September 10th 2020, infecting more than 30 internal servers. Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts data and system files, rendering them – and usually the devices that runs them – useless. The victim can purchase a decryption key from the crooks (at a cost) in order to regain access to those files, or restore files from a backup. Else, the files are lost.

Ransomware typically infects business networks when an employee is tricked into opening a harmful email attachment using one of a countless number of social engineering techniques. Alternatively crooks can exploit weak cyber-security defences or software vulnerabilities to compromise a network and install malware. The infection at Duesseldorf Hospital is reported to have been caused by the latter.

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It is believed the hospital was not the intended target however, since a ransom note was addressed to a nearby university.

However, in the midst of the attack at the hospital, a patient being taken to the hospital for “urgent care” had to be turned away and re-routed to another hospital around 30km outside the city. That patient – identified only as a woman – later passed away.

It also means that cyber-crooks, for the first time, are now being hunted by the authorities for crimes relating to manslaughter, reported AP News.

It has also been reported that the crooks provided the hospital with the decryption key after learning that it was the hospital – not the university – that had been attacked.

Given the prolific rise of ransomware as the most preeminent malware out there and its propensity for attacking (intentionally or otherwise) hospitals and healthcare providers, deaths arising from such attacks were considered by many as practically inevitable.

The investigation into the incident and to find those responsible continues.

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