As the novel coronavirus crisis continues, a cybersecurity house has started offering gratuitous help to healthcare providers that autumn victim to cryptocurrency-demanding ransomware.

Co-ordinate to an annunciation on March 18, cybersecurity firm Emsisoft partnered with incident response company Coveware to let costless access to ransomware-related services at no cost to healthcare providers.

The initiative aims to go the impacted organizations operational in the shortest time possible to reduce the bear on on patient intendance to a minimum.

"A perfect tempest"

According to the firm, ransomware attacks have a seasonal aspect with the number of incidents spiking during the spring and summer months.

Emsisoft also suggests that this twelvemonth, the spike could exist more pronounced than usual due to potential system vulnerabilities introduced by the hastily-introduced remote work environments and staffing shortages.

Brett Unconversant, an Emsisoft threat analyst told Cointelegraph that, in the vast majority of ransomware incidents, the attack vector is an email or an improperly secured remote admission solution, adding:

"We're anticipating an increase in ransomware incidents which could be significantly in excess of the typical seasonal spikes and, unfortunately, may coincide with COVID-19's peak. A perfect storm."

At the end of last year, Emsisoft released a report claiming that in 2022, at least 764 healthcare providers were impacted by ransomware. Now, the firm suggests that with the ongoing pandemic such attacks "could tip the rest and result in a significant loss of life."

Chart of ransomware cases reported per month. Source: Emsisoft

Nautical chart of ransomware cases reported per month. Source: Emsisoft

Since the stakes are higher than usual, the firms will offer technical analysis of ransomware and decryption tool evolution for complimentary. Every bit a terminal resort, the free services also include ransom negotiation, transaction handling and mail-ransom payment data recovery management with a custom decryption tool.

Ransowmare'south human relationship with Bitcoin

Ransomware is a growing chance in an economy that is becoming always-more dependent on technology for providing appurtenances and services. In a recent meeting, the U.s. Senate examined new measures to enhance the homeland security cybersecurity measures, including addressing ransomware.

Recently, a grouping of particularly opportunistic hackers started spreading ransomware by claiming that the software they are sending provides information on the spread of the coronavirus.