Protecting Healthcare and Human Rights Organizations from Cyberattacks by Microsoft

Cyberattacks are impacting workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 fight.  Nearly all these attacks have two things in common: a person and email. An attacker will often disguise malicious content as a message from a health authority or medical equipment provider. These emails sent to work or home inboxes seek to obtain the person’s credentials and often contain documents or links that will infect a computer and spread the infection through a network, enabling attackers to control it. In some cases, attackers could be looking for COVID-19-related intelligence, or to disrupt the provision of desperately needed care or supplies.

Microsoft is making AccountGuard available to healthcare providers including hospitals, care facilities, clinics, labs and clinicians providing front line services as well as pharmaceutical, life sciences and medical devices companies that are researching, developing and manufacturing COVID-19-related treatments. Our notifications will help these organizations defend against nation-state attacks, and our AccountGuard advice and training support will help them harden their defenses against all forms of cyberattacks. AccountGuard for Healthcare will be available until the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.

In addition to making AccountGuard available to those working directly in the healthcare field, another important part of today’s announcement is the availability of AccountGuard for worldwide human rights and humanitarian organizations.

AccountGuard threat notification service available at no cost to healthcare providers on the front lines as well as human rights and humanitarian organizations around the world. Healthcare organizations can sign up here, and human rights and humanitarian organizations can sign up here.