A Recent Assessment for the Ransomware Attacks Against the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT): A Review

Abstract

The magnitude, complexity, and diversity of cyber threats against the Internet of Medical Things have increased over the past several years, making it challenging to implement effective defence strategies against these cyber-attacks, especially against ransomware. Balancing security requirements and rapid innovation and adoption with the Internet of Medical Things is challenging in healthcare industries. Hence, this article presents the identified features in ransomware architecture that triggered the ransomware attacks against the Internet of Medical Things. The experiment was conducted in a controlled lab environment, with open-source tools and by using hybrid analysis. As a result, thirteen (13) related features that include initial access, persistence, execution, defence evasion, credential access, discovery, impact, command and control, privilege escalation, lateral movement, collection, network communication and MD5 have been identified by analyzing vulnerabilities, potential attack routes, and the effects of a successful security breach against the IoMT. In the future, this work can be used as a reference and guidance for other researchers with the same interest.