Spain's hospital IT systems under “massive attack” (in Spanish)

https://elpais.com/espana/2020-03-23/la-policia-detecta-un-ataque-masivo-al-sistema-informatico-de-los-hospitales.html

by nemoniac • 6 years ago

105 70 6 years ago

luckydata• 6 years ago

you gotta be a special kind of piece of crap to do that now

theschmed• 6 years ago

Disregard for human life seems to be a pattern of online lulz. I mean, this is on a different scale from "SWATTING" but the same sociopathy, no?

revel• 6 years ago

this is much more likely to be a malicious state actor than uncoordinated attacks by random internet idiots

Symmetry• 6 years ago

Being angry at a particular person and wanting to get them killed is really bad but it's something a lot of people are capable of. Getting a bunch of random people killed to make a quick buck is different.

mcs_• 6 years ago

In some cases, people with no hope is used to execute wrong commands. As humanity, we have seen in the past military actions against people without weapons (killing them at times). I do not think the issue is them trying to do bad things, and maybe the point is we are living in a world where there are many more borderlines that are easily recruitable for some dollars.

celticninja2• 6 years ago

due to the significant danger posed to the lives of so many I hope they are caught and severely punished. this is not the type of person that you can rehabilitate.

IAmEveryone3• 6 years ago

“Rehabilitation” isn’t the opposite of “punishment”. In fact punishment is part of the process of rehabilitation.

If, as you say, rehabilitation is impossible, punishment would be illegitimate. Because we don’t harm people just to satisfy our thirst for revenge.

threatofrain2• 6 years ago

Is this an individual? Or a team working for an institution?

pjc502• 6 years ago

I have a horrible suspicion that the attacks are continuous and ongoing, but the high stress levels of the present situation make it easier for people to click on the wrong email or link on their XP hospital PCs.

agumonkey• 6 years ago

there will be a special lesson after this, because we're in a wide global stress and indeed, when something is overloaded, other issues are felt deeper. It's also a time when people can act foolish and be tempted to be antisocial, so more stupid hacks, more angry people, or even more dormant ennemies trying to benefit.

ancarda2• 6 years ago

The current top comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22665562) has a translation that mentions the email containing the virus was about COVID-19

Do not defend the pieces of shit that launch attacks during a pandemic.

threatofrain2• 6 years ago

I doubt this simply a shitty person as opposed to a military action by funded institutions.

netsharc• 6 years ago

What's with this conspiracy theory? The average person can pull this shit off, why do you have to "believe" that it's something "funded institutions" (do you not even dare write "state sponsored"?)? What world view do you have that you'd rather have it be a state rather than shitty people? So you can think "$ENEMY_STATE is so fucking evil"?

Maybe it's 1 person, maybe it's organized criminals, do they count as "funded institutions"? Maybe it's a state... but well if you have beliefs, you gotta have the evidence!

czechdeveloper• 6 years ago

We recently (during corona crisis) had attach on strategic Czech hospital too.

WrtCdEvrydy• 6 years ago

Do you have some sort of contact I could reach out for an interview on this?

vanous• 6 years ago

And, because nation wide state of emergency has been declared few weeks ago, even small law breaking stuff is a crime. So people running these bot networks might not have realized that if caught, penalty can easily be 10x the usual rate.

Giornito• 6 years ago

I expect similar issues at a grander scale to occur in the US if things get to the same level as we see in my home Italy.

duxup5• 6 years ago

I'm not sure an IT attack is a sure fire thing that goes along with healthcare use.

khafra• 6 years ago

If it's not just utterly sociopathic organized crime, it could be one of the many, many people whose loved ones had to be taken off life support because of insufficient medical supplies and personnel.

I can't imagine that most people would respond this way, but it only takes one or two unreasonably angry people with the right skillset.

_jal• 6 years ago

Not the GP, but I think they were getting at US facilities being a somewhat more attractive target than Italy's. This is due to both political reasons and simply having more healthcare targets to go after.

GonzaloQuero• 6 years ago

Son of a bitch, how can humanity sink so low with such ease?

duxup5• 6 years ago

If it is ransomware, I suspect the folks who do that thing made that decision long ago.

Spooky23• 6 years ago

There’s a lot of nation state stuff that is just designed to sow chaos.

fnord123• 6 years ago

There are also cyber attacks on food delivery companies: https://twitter.com/jitsegroen/status/1240332307262832642

dillonmckay• 6 years ago

In all honesty, I think food delivery companies are part of the problem.

birdyrooster• 6 years ago

it’s better to have a few couriers to many people than many people mingling with many people at restaurants. It’s like logarithmic or linear versus quadratic or exponential spread.

gallegojaime2• 6 years ago

You mean this from a security perspective in their services?

duxup5• 6 years ago

Keeping people home is helpful.

dyingkneepad• 6 years ago

Buying delivery is one of the few ways I have to try to support local businesses a little bit... I can give generous tips, and I can avoid being infected by putting everything I buy in the oven for a while, or buying things that I know will not pass through many fingers after being cooked.

Yes, it is a risk of infection, but one that you can calculate and do stuff to mitigate.

toby• 6 years ago

"We are not aware of any reports at this time of human illnesses that suggest COVID-19 can be transmitted by food or food packaging."

https://www.usda.gov/coronavirus

Havoc2• 6 years ago

And in Germany people were sabotaging ambulance tires.

WTF is wrong with people

superzamp• 6 years ago

Probably, and maybe hopefully, crackpots trying to maximize chaos to push their own impaired agenda.

deckiedan• 6 years ago

and in the UK: https://www.kentonline.co.uk/thanet/news/holes-drilled-in-ty...

Zhyl2• 6 years ago

In all seriousness, this could potentially be tried as attempted murder.

intsunny• 6 years ago

Link?

Havoc2• 6 years ago

Don’t recall where I saw it - last couple days news was a blur

Was like 6 parked ambulances with holes drilled in tires in some arb German town

TomMckenny• 6 years ago

There are powerful, influential people down-playing the seriousness of the epidemic while they unload stock. Pointlessly murder a few people by puncturing ambulance tires or profitably contribute statistically to the death of millions, there seem to be some deeply evil people around.

gallegojaime2• 6 years ago

We will pull together against CoVID, and anyone who takes this chance for criminal gains. For the readers who work in IT and cybersecurity, your actions now will save many lives. Keep calm and carry on.

ch4s32• 6 years ago

For those less linguistically inclined, the article is about a spike in Ransomware attacks on the Spanish health system, and the use of Corona Virus websites and emails to spread similar ransomware to the general public.

duxup5• 6 years ago

I suppose the folks whose 'job' is ransomware feels like healthcare systems will be more likely to pay up if already under stress.

ch4s32• 6 years ago

Yeah, I suppose so... but ooof some people. I used to work in HealthCare and the IT side of health systems is so stupidly resistant to automated off site backups that this situation was bound to happen somewhere at the worst possible time.

gadrev• 6 years ago

La Policía Nacional detectó este domingo un intento de bloquear los ordenadores de los hospitales españoles mediante el envío al personal sanitario de correos electrónicos con un virus “muy peligroso” con el señuelo de contener información sobre la Covid-19, según ha informado este lunes el director adjunto operativo del cuerpo, el comisario José Ángel González.

La nueva amenaza es un virus informático del tipo ransomware [secuestrador de datos] denominado Netwalker, según detallan fuentes policiales. Este actúa bloqueando todos los archivos del equipo informático para, a continuación, lanzar un mensaje en el que exige el pago de un rescate para el desbloqueo de los mismos.

National Police detected an attempt to lock down the hospital's computers with a "very dangerous" computer virus in emails pretending to contain information about COVID-19, as told by police chief J. A. G.

The new threat is a computer virus of type ransomware called _Netwalker_, as told by police sources. This virus works locking access to all files in a computer and then asking for a ransom to unlock the files.

It goes on to give a generic explanation of ransomware, but there doesn't seem to be much more technical detail in the article.

manthideaal• 6 years ago

Some more info from (1): The new Netwalker phishing campaign is using an attachment named "CORONAVIRUS_COVID-19.vbs". Related: Also from (2): APT36 uses two lure formats in this campaign: Excel documents with embedded malicious macros and RTF documents files designed to exploit the CVE-2017-0199 Microsoft Office/WordPad remote code execution vulnerability.

from (3) .Ransomware Gangs to Stop Attacking Health Orgs During Pandemic

(1) https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/netwalker-ran...

(2) https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/nation-backed...

(3) https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransomware-ga...

hn_throwaway_99• 6 years ago

If people die because of these attacks, which seems quite likely, capital punishment should be on the table IMO.

Zhyl2• 6 years ago

They certainly won't be being invited to any of my dinner parties.

bargle0• 6 years ago

In the apocalypse that they hasten, they might be invited to my dinner party. They might not like how they get served, though. /s

IAmEveryone3• 6 years ago

The death penalty was abolished in Spain after the end of the Franco dictatorship in the 1970s.

That, in combination with the universal prohibition of ex post facto legislation, leads to the conclusion that any future where people in Spain are executed for this is a future where a lot more went wrong than just these attacks.

amelius3• 6 years ago

Ransomware is another bad usecase of cryptocurrencies.

Given that they also increase global warming, I've lost my enthusiasm for the concept.

Skunkleton• 6 years ago

I agree. In the end it’s all fiat currency anyway. What does any currency have without the rule of law?

vbezhenar• 6 years ago

Any currency worth using may be used for ransom. If currency can't be used for ransom, it's not anonymous enough and should be avoided. So existence of ransomware is the best marketing for cryptocurrencies. Just like terrorists using E2E messengers are the best marketing for encrypted messaging. If some people (does not matter, whether they're evil or good, just not stupid) are trusting technology with their freedom and lives, this technology is worth looking at.

amelius3• 6 years ago

If some people (does not matter, whether they're evil or good, just not stupid) are trusting technology with their freedom and lives, this technology is worth looking at.

Yes, criminals would be stupid if they didn't use this technology. The concept is a gift from heaven for these people.

What we need is a currency that is anonymous except for the two parties involved in the transaction, i.e. similar to cash but without the downsides of cash.

taylodl• 6 years ago

Two kinds of people respond to fires: one, those who want to help put the fire out and do all they can to help; two, those who pour on the accelerant so they can watch the world burn! Are these type 2 people sociopaths? Yes. But it's interesting to think why that behavior evolves and what benefits it might (or has) confer to our species in the long run.

wdroz• 6 years ago

back in the days, hospitals were never targeted by hackers.

soco• 6 years ago

On the same topic: "Medical company set to aid coronavirus response struck by ransomware" https://www.ciodive.com/news/medical-company-coronavirus-ran...

felco• 6 years ago

Please when reporting this kind of attack, share the Raw e-mail message. That helps identify the how the software is being hosted, domains and MTAs used to spread the message.

ChrisArchitect• 6 years ago

this is from today? meanwhile there was this story back on the 18th:

Ransomware Gangs to Stop Attacking Health Orgs During Pandemic https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransomware-ga...

hmm..

Spain's hospital IT systems under “massive attack” (in Spanish)

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