In February 2016, the computer network at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center (HPMC) was down for more than a week as the Southern California hospital worked to recover from a ransomware attack. Hospital administrators declared an internal emergency as staff struggled to access patient records and computer systems critical for patient care. Some patients had to be transported to other hospitals to maintain their continuity of care. All the while, attackers held the hospital’s computer systems hostage until a ransom of 40 Bitcoins approximately $17,000 was paid. Only then could the hospital regain use of its files that had been surreptitiously encrypted by malware.Since then, at least three more healthcare organisations have reported business disruptions due to ransomware attacks. And there will be others now that cybercrime syndicates have discovered how lucrative this type of attack can be. HPMC may have gotten off easy with a ransom of only40 Bitcoins. Criminals know that many organisations would pay far more than that in order to restore their systems to working order. According to the Institute of Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT), To pay or not to pay will be the question fuelling heated debate in boardrooms across theU.S. and abroad.
The Ransomware Threat A Guide To Detecting An Attack Before ItS Too Late
