The FBI has issued a warning about a ransomware attack targeting the U.S. health care system and security experts say hundreds of hospitals are at risk.
Federal agencies warned that cybercriminals are unleashing a wave of extortion attempts against the U.S. healthcare system designed to take over and hold hostage hospital information systems as coronavirus cases and hospital admissions for the virus are increasing.
The FBI and two federal agencies issued an alert they had “credible information of an increased and imminent cybercrime threat to U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers.”
The alert said the malicious groups are targeting the health sector with attacks that produce “data theft and disruption of healthcare services."
The attacks involve "ransomware," which scrambles data in the systems that can only be unlocked with software keys that are provided - only after a targets pays a ransom, according to officials.
Security experts say the ransomware has already affected at least five U.S. hospitals this week, and could potentially impact hundreds more, according to the Associated Press.