Security News > 2020 > May > If someone could stop hackers pwning medical systems right now, that would be cool, say Red Cross and friends

Following the surge of cyber attacks on medical facilities, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross and more than 40 other international leaders asked the governments of the world to do more to safeguard critical medical organizations amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In an open letter published on Tuesday, Peter Maurer, president of the ICRC, and other prominent signatories asked the world's government's "To take immediate and decisive action to stop all cyber attacks on hospitals, health care and medical research facilities, as well as on medical personnel and international public health organizations."

The call to have governments cooperate to fight attacks on healthcare organizations may not go so well if, as US authorities have claimed, governments are behind some of the hacking.

The ICRC argues that the world has agreed to spare healthcare facilities from attack during wartime and we should not tolerate internet attacks either.

The Register asked the ICRC what it hopes to accomplish by demanding governments do more, given that nations already oppose illegal hacking and attempt to apprehend miscreants.

News URL

https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/26/red_cross_coronavirus_hacking/