Microsoft warns hospitals about VPN cyberattacks during coronavirus

Up to 80% of Americans are on government-mandated lockdowns, forcing many of them to work from home while they keep away from the office to avoid spreading the novel coronavirus. Many of these people use technology to access their work called virtual private networks, or VPNs. And now Microsoft says that those companies -- and specifically health care workers -- need to be on the lookout for a different breed of threats that come from them.

The tech giant took what it says is its first-ever step to warn hospitals about this threat. "Ransomware operators have identified a practical target -- network devices like gateway and virtual private network (VPN) appliances," Microsoft said in a statement. "These are more difficult to remediate because it can be challenging for defenders to go and extensively hunt to find where the ransomware attackers have established persistence and identify what has been compromised."