(Eagle News)–The Department of Information and Communications Technology on Tuesday, March 24, called on hospitals to employ emergency backup systems amid the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
“(T)he Cybersecurity Bureau of the DICT urges hospitals and healthcare facilities nationwide to employ emergency backup systems to ensure operational continuity for both databases and infrastructure in case of outages caused by malware or cyber attacks,” the DICT said in a statement.
According to the DICT, “cyber-attacks are happening amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic.”
“There have been reports of ransomware attacks that target hospitals and healthcare facilities,” it added, citing a report from Healthcare IT News UK which it said reported a cyber attack on a Czech hospital serving as a test facility for COVID-19.
It said based on the report, the hospital forced a tech shutdown in the midst of the outbreak.
The DICT said cyber incidents may be reported through email at [email protected], mobile at 09214942917 or 09561542042, and landline at 8920-0101 loc. 1708.
