The ransomware cyberattack on Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera on Wednesday, which damaged the hospital's computer systems and forced management to switch to an alternate system to maintain proper care of patients, exposed the public to a new world of threats.
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The new attacks are not enough to acquire or corrupt information, but they could impair life-saving systems such as ventilators, oxygen generators and saturators, and other machines, as any breach of such systems is potentially life-threatening.
In a similar attack that occurred last year, an elderly German woman, who had been rushed to a hospital in Dusseldorf for emergency care, died because the medical staff couldn't receive her after the hospital's computer systems had collapsed due to a cyberattack.
In the US, a hospital was sued by a young woman who claimed her baby, who was born with severe difficulties, didn't receive proper care because at that time the hospital's computer systems were partially down due to a ransomware attack. Consequently, the baby's condition deteriorated and he died several days later.
Ransomware attacks, contrary to "regular" cyberattacks, are characterized by the attacking side seeking monetary gain from their action. On a principle level, the attacker or group behind such attacks is not motivated by any discernible ideology, policy, or political position they seek to impose, change or end.
However, we've already seen that attacks on Israeli organizations can be motivated by several parallel goals. Case in point, the attack on Bar-Ilan University's student database, for which the attackers sought a ransom – was perpetrated by an Iranian cyber group, at least according to expert assessments.
Israel has also been suspected of carrying out cyberattacks, according to foreign reports, against targets in Iran. In July, Iran's railway grid was hit by a cyberattack in which the hackers posted fake delay notices on station boards, and in some instances also urged passengers to call an information hotline, listing the phone number of the office of the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A short while after that attack, another attack was launched that took down the website of Iran's Transportation Ministry.
Israeli and global cyber experts are in agreement that the current trend of digital attacks is certain to continue, whether in the form of ransomware attacks or cyber warfare between global powers. With time, these attackers will become increasingly brazen. When adding to this equation ever-improving capabilities and expertise in the hands of hostile elements, what you get is a future where the attacks are far more dangerous.
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