Security News > 2020 > November > On That Dusseldorf Hospital Ransomware Attack and the Resultant Death

On That Dusseldorf Hospital Ransomware Attack and the Resultant Death
2020-11-24 12:01

Wired has a detailed story about the ransomware attack on a Dusseldorf hospital, the one that resulted in an ambulance being redirected to a more distant hospital and the patient dying.

After a detailed investigation involving consultations with medical professionals, an autopsy, and a minute-by-minute breakdown of events, Hartmann believes that the severity of the victim's medical diagnosis at the time she was picked up was such that she would have died regardless of which hospital she had been admitted to.

It's only a matter of time, Hartmann believes, before ransomware does directly cause a death.

Where causation is established, Hartmann points out that exposure for criminal prosecution stretches beyond the hackers.

Could they have better defended the hospital by monitoring the network more closely, for instance?


News URL

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2020/11/on-that-dusseldorf-hospital-ransomware-attack-and-the-resultant-death.html