The Dutch National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) confirmed that the websites of several hospitals in the Netherlands and Europe were hit by DDoS attacks by pro-Russian hacking group Killnet.
The hackers launched the attack against the hospitals in the European countries due to their support for Ukraine.
According to the experts from Z-CERT, the computer emergency response team for the Dutch healthcare sector, the Killnet group were blamed for the cyber-attacks that hit the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) on Saturday.
The UMCG faced a DDoS attack, in which a system is flooded with a vast amount of visitors at the same time. The impact isn’t terrible and that the patient care could continue as usual. Only the UMCG website is down. According to the hospital, the website with the medical records of UMCG patients has not been compromised. Patients can still view their medical history, operations, medicines, and appointments.
The Pro-Russia group of hackers targeted 31 Dutch hospitals. NCSC stated that currently the DDoS attacks are successfully mitigated and the impact of the attacks is limited.
The hackers also targeted hospitals in the UK, Germany, Poland, Scandinavia and the United States. Last week, the group announced the attacks on its Telegram channel, calling for action against the US government healthcare.
Cyber-attacks against healthcare organizations represent a serious threat, even if DDoS attacks are considered low-level offensives.
Last week the pro-Russia group launched a series of DDoS attacks against the websites of German airports, administration bodies, and banks.
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