Displaying items by tag: cyberattacks

A recent ransomware attack by the Russian cybercriminal group Qilin has significantly impacted pathology services at several major London hospitals. The attack disrupted NHS services, leading to the cancellation or redirection of procedures and operations. Ciaran Martin, former chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, explained that these criminals, seeking financial gain, operate freely from within Russia and have a history of targeting various organisations globally. This attack, involving the shutdown of systems rather than data theft, has severely affected healthcare operations, reflecting the serious nature of such ransomware incidents.

The National Cyber Security Centre reports that Chinese, Russians and Iranians are targeting healthcare bodies involved in coronavirus research. The first country to find a vaccine or cure will achieve diplomatic and geo-political influence. Healthcare and medical research staff were urged to improve their password security and implement two-factor authentication on accounts to reduce the possibility of threats. Matt Hancock has given the intelligence service access to the NHS IT network. Boris Johnson wisely stated, 'The race to discover the vaccine to defeat this virus is not a competition between countries but the most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes'. Pray for nations to share vital information and resources rather than competing with each other and potentially wasting time duplicating identical tests and research.

Dutch military intelligence disrupted a Russian cyber-attack on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The attack, which was thwarted with the help of British officials, came after Russia had also attempted remote attacks on on the UK Foreign Office in March and the Porton Down chemical weapons facility in April. Both attacks were unsuccessful. The Dutch defence minister said that four Russian intelligence officials from the GRU’s cybercrime unit, known as Sandworm, had been expelled from the Netherlands after being caught spying on the chemical weapons body in April. Jeremy Hunt said that a number of hackers widely known to have been conducting attacks around the world were covers for Russia’s GRU intelligence service, and their attacks had been undertaken with the consent and knowledge of the Kremlin. A Russian spokeswoman dismissed the hacking accusations as ‘big fantasies’.

On 15 March the United States issued sanctions on 19 Russian individuals and five Russian groups, including Moscow’s intelligence services, for meddling in the 2016 US election and malicious cyber-attacks. They said there would be additional sanctions against Russian government officials and oligarchs ‘for their destabilising activities’, but did not give a time frame for those sanctions, which would sever the individuals’ access to the US financial system. Those targeted by the new sanctions include the Russian nationals and entities who adopted false online personas to push divisive messages, travelled to the United States to collect intelligence, and staged political rallies while posing as Americans. The action blocks all property of those targeted that is subject to US jurisdiction, and prohibits American citizens from engaging in transactions with them.