"Could a Digital Red Cross Protect Hospitals From Ransomware?"

Across a century of wars, the internationally recognized Red Cross symbol has marked people and facilities off-limits to attack. However, security experts are skeptical of a recent proposal to create a digital Red Cross marker to protect healthcare and humanitarian organizations from cyberattacks, with the reason being that cybercriminals cannot be trusted. The Red Cross recommendation comes as ransomware attacks on medical facilities rise and the role of cyberwarfare in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine increases. The proposal calls for making the symbol easy for cyberattackers to find while avoiding detection by cybersecurity teams, as well as making it simple for healthcare and aid agencies to deploy. The issue is that the project would need threat actors who target healthcare to cooperate. Although nation-states recognize the Red Cross symbol on the battlefield, that relationship is nonexistent between victims and criminals, according to Michael Hamilton, CISO at Critical Insight. Their intention is to draw parallels to the battlefield symbol, but Hamilton believes this will be ineffective as a deterrent. Hospitals are specifically targeted due to their importance and, as a result, willingness to pay extortion demands. According to the Red Cross, a digital emblem should be used to identify a wide range of digital components, including servers, computers, smartphones, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, network devices, cloud infrastructure, communication equipment, and more. Errol Weiss, CSO of Healthcare-ISAC, says most attackers use a shotgun approach with emails that can reach millions of people, and once a person falls victim to a phishing attack, their priority is gaining a stronger foothold and looking for ways to monetize the breach. Perhaps they will unwind the attack once they realize what they have access to, but Weiss believes that is unlikely, noting that cybercriminals publicly declared a truce against healthcare during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which did not last long. They were attacking hospitals and ransoming hospitals, so they are unlikely to live up to this. This article continues to discuss the proposed digital Red Cross marker to protect healthcare and humanitarian groups from cyberattacks and why there is skepticism surrounding this idea. 

InfoRiskToday reports "Could a Digital Red Cross Protect Hospitals From Ransomware?"