Hospitals may be the targets of ransomware attacks that will take their systems offline and possibly compromise patient care. | Win McNamee/Getty Images

A new wave of ransomware attacks is “imminent,” according to US authorities.

As though hospitals across America didn’t have enough to handle with the recent resurgence of Covid-19 causing overflows and straining their resources, they’re now the possible targets of a new onslaught of ransomware attacks.

An alert from the FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said on Wednesday that there is an imminent threat of ransomware attacks on American hospitals and health care providers. Ransomware is malware that locks up a system’s computers and data until a ransom is paid. The alert didn’t specify who the agencies thought might be responsible for the attacks,