Security News > 2020 > September > A Patient Dies After Ransomware Attack Paralyzes German Hospital Systems

German authorities last week disclosed that a ransomware attack on the University Hospital of Düsseldorf caused a failure of IT systems, resulting in the death of a woman who had to be sent to another hospital that was 20 miles away.

The attack, which exploited a Citrix ADC CVE-2019-19781 vulnerability to cripple the hospital systems on September 10, is said to have been "Misdirected" in that it was originally intended for Heinrich Heine University, according to an extortion note left by the perpetrators.

Although several ransomware gangs said early on in the pandemic that they would not deliberately target hospitals or medical facilities, the recurring attacks prompted the Interpol to issue a warning cautioning hospitals against ransomware attacks designed to lock them out of their critical systems in an attempt to extort payments.

Allan Liska, a threat intelligence analyst at Recorded Future, revealed there had been at least 80 publicly reported ransomware infections targeting the education sector to date this year, a massive jump from 43 ransomware attacks for the whole of 2019.

For more guidance on proofing businesses against ransomware attacks, head to US Cybersecurity Security and Infrastructure Security Agency's response guide here.

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