As hospitals around the world struggle to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, ransomware presents a serious risk to their ability to provide urgent care to the critical ill. In 2019, at least 764 healthcare providers were impacted by ransomware.. Without a global pandemic, a ransomware attack on a critical care facility can cause grave danger to patients. With COVID-19, a ransomware attack on an overwhelmed hospital could tip the balance and result in loss of life.

COVID -19 Response: Free Ransomware Assistance for Coronavirus Healthcare Providers

In partnership with Emsisoft, we will be offering completely free help to critical care hospitals and other healthcare providers that are on the front lines of COVID-19 and have been impacted by ransomware. Subject to our own capacity to help, we aim to provide this service for the duration of the crisis.

The services offered will include

• Technical analysis of the ransomware

• Development of a free decryption tool whenever possible

• As a last resort ransom negotiation, transaction handling and recovery assistance.

Our goal is to minimize patient care disruption by helping affected healthcare providers become operational as fast as possible. If  you are a healthcare service provider that has experienced an attack, contact us. 

Ransomware Attacks are Likely to Spike in the Coming Weeks

Ransomware has a seasonal aspect and the number of incidents normally spike during the spring and the summer months.

This will likely be exacerbated by more organizations relying on remote workers and perils that come with properly securing remote access to corporate networks. . It is likely that there will be an increase in the number of healthcare providers impacted by ransomware in the coming months which, unfortunately, may be the same time that COVID-19 peaks. 

A Note to Ransomware Groups

While we will never condone criminal behavior, we understand why the cyber extortion economy exists.  Make no mistake, an attack on a healthcare organization will have kinetic outcomes. We know you are humans, and that your own family and loved ones may end up in a hospital in need of urgent care.  We ask for your empathy. If you attack a healthcare organization, you are taking lives not money. If you encrypt a health care provider unintentionally, please provide them with the decryption key at no cost as soon as possible. If this sounds strange to read, it is even weirder for us to write. Times have changed, and it is time for plain talk.

A Note to Non-Healthcare Organizations that become Victims of Ransomware 

We are all in the same boat together. Our priority at this time is to ensure we have the capacity to help healthcare organizations helping save the lives of COVID-19 patients.  If we find the capacity to extend our free program to other industries, we will update this post and provide further guidance. Until then, please hunker down and stay safe!