World
Hackers ‘Without Conscience’ Target Health-Care Providers
- Criminals taking advantage of pandemic to launch cyber-attacks
- Encrypting records could keep doctors from vital patient data
Photographer: Andras Vas
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When hackers broke into computers at Hammersmith Medicines Research, a London-based company that carries out clinical trials for new medicines, it was a nightmare scenario for managing director Malcolm Boyce.
The coronavirus crisis was just beginning to take hold in the U.K., and the company was in talks with other firms about potentially testing a vaccine. The hackers used encryption to lock down thousands of the company’s patient records and promised to publish them online if a ransom wasn’t paid.