Software giant Microsoft received a court order from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York that will allow the company to disrupt infrastructure used by ransomware gangs during hospital attacks.
The court order allows Microsoft to cut off communication between hackers and a fake version of the cybersecurity software Cobalt Strike, used by hackers to breach hospital systems.
The abuse of the cybersecurity software is a tactic used by Russian-speaking ransomware gangs Conti and LockBit, according to an April 6 Microsoft news release.
"The ransomware families associated with or deployed by cracked copies of Cobalt Strike have been linked to more than 68 ransomware attacks impacting healthcare organizations in more than 19 countries around the world," the Microsoft news release said. "These attacks have cost hospital systems millions of dollars in recovery and repair costs, plus interruptions to critical patient care services including delayed diagnostic, imaging and laboratory results, canceled medical procedures and delays in delivery of chemotherapy treatments, just to name a few."