Recent cyber attacks against medical facilities underline a concern the ICRC has raised for some time: medical facilities are particularly vulnerable to hostile or malicious cyber operations. They underline the vulnerability of this sector to cyber attacks at a time when medical care is needed more than ever. Where successful, these attacks have interrupted the provision of health care and put additional costs on health-care providers. The cyber attacks range from ransomware operations, aimed at crippling primary and urgent care networks in exchange for payouts, to disinformation campaigns aimed at undermining and disrupting wider elements of the response to the pandemic, including testing and vaccine research facilities. Above all, governments should take action and stop cyber attacks on hospitals and medical facilities. We call on governments to work together, and to join forces with civil society and the private sector, to ensure that medical facilities are respected and protected, and to hold perpetrators accountable. We stand with the International Committee of the Red Cross in support of its call to protect medical services or medical facilities against cyber attacks of any kind. We don't tolerate attacks on health infrastructure in the physical world, and we must not tolerate such attacks in cyberspace – whether in time of peace or in time of conflict. For now and for the future, governments should assert in unequivocal terms: cyber operations against health care facilities are unlawful and unacceptable. With hundreds of thousands of people already perished and millions infected around the world, medical care is more important than ever. These actions have endangered human lives by impairing the ability of these critical institutions to function, slowing down the distribution of essential supplies and information, and disrupting the delivery of care to patients. Over the past weeks, we have witnessed attacks that have targeted medical facilities and organizations on the front line of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, governments should work together, including at the United Nations, to reaffirm and recommit to international rules that prohibit such actions. We call on the world's governments to take immediate and decisive action to stop all cyber attacks on hospitals, health care and medical research facilities, as well as on medical personnel and international public health organizations. These are just the attacks we know about the actual numbers are likely much higher.Ī call to governments: Work together to stop cyber attacks on health care This additional threat to medical facilities comes at a time when the ICRC has recorded more than 200 physical incidents of violence against health workers and facilities linked to COVID-19, across more than 13 countries, since the beginning of the pandemic. The call follows cyber attacks in recent weeks against medical facilities, including in the Czech Republic, France, Spain, Thailand, and the United States, international organizations such as the World Health Organization, and other health authorities. Today we are calling on States to assert in unequivocal terms: cyber operations against healthcare facilities are unlawful and unacceptable. The signatories come from across government, industry, international and non-governmental organizations and academia and demand that governments work together, including at the United Nations, to reaffirm and recommit to international rules that prohibit such actions.Īttacks on health care are unthinkable - and frankly outrageous - especially during the #COVID pandemic. On Tuesday, Peter Maurer added his name to a list of more than 40 international leaders calling on the world's governments to take immediate and decisive action to prevent and stop cyber attacks that target hospitals, health care, research organizations, and international authorities providing critical care and guidance in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
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