Aug 11
2020
Preventing COVID-19 Frauds and Scams In Medical Facilities
The coronavirus pandemic has impacted us profoundly as most nonessential businesses stay closed, and the nations worldwide stay indoors. The hospital staff is under tremendous stress, and all non-critical medical treatments and procedures are on hold until further notice. The pandemic has halted all industrial activity, and the medical field, the frontline warrior against the virus, has been disrupted the most.
Sadly, whether an opportunistic trend or organized crime, critical situations have always given criminals a favorable moment to strike. Owing to their large payouts and increased public interest in it, medical facilities have emerged as a prime target.
Healthcare: A target of organized fraud
While the health sector has always been a dominant area in case of fraud, the situation intensified after the COVID-19 outbreak. One of the biggest battles that the medical facilities needed and still need to combat is the trafficking of substandard and falsified medical products. These items usually included hand sanitizers, test kits, face masks, and other medical equipment. As the demand for such products spiked, criminal activities attempt to take advantage of the public health system’s capacities.
Besides this major threat, healthcare facilities need to prepare their infrastructure for various cyberattacks. The COVID-19 lowered the resistance of many facilities. INTERPOL reports a significant increase in the number of ransomware attacks against companies and organizations that battle the COVID-19 crisis.
Ransomware virus is one of the deadliest infections as it is capable of stealing or encrypting medical data. Then, if facilities want to retrieve the decryption key or prevent the data from being disclosed publicly, they need to pay large ransoms. During this situation, when hospital staff needs to have access to medical records and patient histories, losing all this confidential data can lead to death. Hence, hospitals need to consider whether their infrastructure is capable of resisting a ransomware infection. One of the options is to perform frequent penetration tests. They help organizations discover their weak points and evaluate the resistance against cyberattacks.