By Kristina Beek – Using a tactic known as “swatting,” threat actors are targeting medical institutions via their patients, in order to convince hospitals to pay ransom demands.

Swatting is an extreme form of prank-calling in which calls are repeatedly made to the police about a certain individual — in this case patients — regarding bomb threats or other highly concerning allegations, leaving authorities no choice but to show up at these unknowing victims’ homes heavily armed.

These threat actors seem to think that putting this kind of pressure on US hospitals will force a ransom payment if it means patients will stop being targeted, such as when medical records were stolen from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle last November. The threat actors in that case threatened to heighten the stakes by targeting the center’s patients with the swatting technique.  Read On: