Cyber Threats to Hospitals and Critical Infrastructure in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 has become one of those remarkable events of the 21st century as the pandemic rages wildly across the globe, forcing governments to prevent social gatherings and push for strict lockdown measures. The internet and tech companies have become an essential tools in governments' inventory for tackling the crisis as the forced curfew measures made e-schooling, home office, and e-meetings almost a mandatory practice for most of the developed world. Moreover, crisis management, tracking of the COVID-19 infected people, data and statistics about the virus, and patient's data in the hospital database further increase the importance of utilizing the internet and technology to tackle the plague and its devastating effects both in terms of human life and economy. As the dependencies increase, so do the vulnerabilities, the stakes, and the concerns. The COVID-19 lockdown and increased use of internet technologies have significantly elevated cyberattacks and cybercrime. Such attacks can be quite harmful when directed toward critical infrastructure and institutions, such as the financial sector, power grids, and hospitals. The European countries have also received their fair share of attacks as the continent is one of the busy corners of cyberspace. There have been many cyberattacks on hospital computers that raised concerns about patient safety and well-being in the EU. Such attacks can be serious threats that go beyond digital or economic damages, they threaten human life. In this paper, major critical and life-threatening cyberattacks that took place in the EU and possibly legal, regulatory, and diplomatic will be investigated. While these challenges continue to cast their shadow, new common grounds and understanding can be achieved through new tools and dynamics, such as cyber diplomacy, confidence-building mechanisms, and the encouragement of responsible state behavior in cyberspace. Hence, the emphasis will be given to cooperation, regulation, diplomacy, and capacity building rather than protectionism, digital hegemony, and militarization of cyberspace to decrease and deter such acts in the digital landscape.