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Consider global coalition to stop serious cybercrime

Federal officials recently warned of an evolving dangerous class of hackers — freelancers willing to kill for money.

The warning came about a new wave of online extortion attempts directed at hospitals and other health care facilities. Their technique is simplicity itself: Hack into a hospital’s main computer, take control of it, then inform management that unless a “ransom” fee is paid, the computer will be shut down or crippled.

Because we use technology to control so many things these days, including critical health care equipment, such action can be life-threatening. Just think for a moment of what could happen if, in the middle of an operation, surgeons suddenly found the electricity cut off. Even access to computerized medical records can be a matter of life and death.

Don’t doubt that the criminal hackers can — and will — do it. In September, a ransomware assault nearly crippled about 250 health care facilities run by Universal Health Services. According to The Associated Press, that forced “doctors and nurses to rely on paper and pencil for record-keeping and slowing lab work. Employees described chaotic conditions impeding patient care, including mounting emergency room waits and the failure of wireless vital-signs monitoring equipment.”

Such an attack is dangerous at any time. Now, with some hospitals dealing with a surge of COVID-19 patients, a ransomware assault could kill.

But the evildoers don’t care. In fact, the more dangerous their schemes, the more likely they are to be paid the money they demand.

Some means of deterring them has to be found. Given the difficulty in identifying the culprits, much less bringing them to justice, no effective enforcement mechanism has been found.

In concert with other countries — including those such as Russia and Iran where cyberwarfare already has been employed to influence our voters — a means of stopping the criminal element needs to be devised. The stakes are high enough that any nation refusing to cooperate ought to be considered to be in league with murderous cyberterrorists.

An international coalition against cybercrime must be made a priority. Something needs to be done before the evil hackers perpetrate an even worse massacre.

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