Amid the 'COVID-19' coronavirus pandemic, hackers are still doing what they can to earn some money and reputation.
Fortunately for hospitals in Romania, the authorities managed to crack down and arrested a hacker group that was just preparing to launch ransomware attacks. According to the police, four of the hackers were members of a hacking group known as PentaGuard.
Three hackers were arrested and had their homes searched in Romania and a fourth in the Republic of Moldova.
Romania's Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) said that the group's members were planning to use malware such as remote access trojans (RAT) and ransomware, tools to deface websites, and tools to exploit SQL injection vulnerabilities to breach hospitals' web servers and steal data.
DIICOT said that it learned that the group was preparing attacks against Romanian hospitals, where they were planning to deploy ransomware.
With the help of Romania's secret service agency (SRI), DIICOT said that the hackers intended to pose as government officials and send malicious emails with COVID-19 lures to employees of the hospitals, in order to infect their computers.
By planting malware and using their numerous tools, the hacker group wanted to infect the data inside the computers and servers, and disrupt hospital activity.
Romanian media reported, citing DIICOT sources, that the hackers were preparing the attacks as a form of protest against the country's COVID-19 quarantine measures, which has restricted public gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The PentaGuard hacking group has been around since at least the year 2000.
The hacking group had made its name when its members were involved in mass-defacements of several government and military websites, including the website of Microsoft Romania.
But in the more recent years, the group has avoided attention, but remained active on several hacking forums.
They only returned to the public in January 2020, when its members have launched defacement attacks on several websites.
DIICOT became more aware of hackers on the move, after the unidentified hackers managed to disrupt the IT systems of the Czech Republic’s second largest hospital in March.
At the time, governments and international bodies warned of the threat to public health.
Interpol said it had “detected a significant increase in the number of attempted ransomware attacks against key organizations and infrastructure engaged in the virus response.”
Governments, including the U.S. and its allies, have condemned the cyberattacks on the health care sector, which have nonetheless continued.
The threat of attacking hospitals could be a much more serious crime than the website defacements.
Especially during this pandemic crisis, even a tiniest disruption in health institutions can be fatal.
Since warned, cybersecurity professionals around the world have responded by volunteering their time and efforts by trying to fend off hacking attempts against medical organizations.
