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Most of the healthcare organizations hit by distributed denial-of-service attacks by pro-Russia hacktivists in January have one or more level 1 trauma centers, indicating that the attackers aimed to disrupt care for the most critically ill and injured patients, according to a new government report warning of the ongoing and evolving threats.
While nuisance hacking group KillNet and its affiliates have been active since at least January 2022 and have been targeting the U.S. healthcare and public health sector since last December, a coordinated bombardment of about 90 such attacks on Jan. 28 targeted medical organizations in the U.S. and several NATO countries, said the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (see: HHS, AHA Warn of Surge in Russian DDoS Attacks on Hospitals).
