Hacker Locks Hospital's Entire Computer Network, Asks $3.6 Million for Decryption
"To improve the quality of our health care while lowering its cost, we will make the immediate investments necessary to ensure that, within five years, all of America's medical records are computerized", said[1] President Obama in 2009. Apparently the ransom was paid before the medical center contacted law enforcement-it's not clear if the Federal Bureau of Investigation or Los Angeles Police Department would have advised doing so.
"The quickest and most efficient way to restore our systems and administrative functions was to pay the ransom and obtain the decryption key". NBC Los Angeles had reported that patients in the area who called 911 were being diverted elsewhere during the outage. "In the best interest of restoring normal operations, we did this", Stefanek wrote[2].
The hospital received a ransom demand of 40 bitcoins[3], which is the equivalent of about $17,000, to obtain the decryption key to unlock the system, and paid it. "I have never heard of this kind of attack trying to shutdown a hospital. If you've been the victim of a ransomware[4] attack, and you're contemplating paying the ransom, keep in mind that the only reason these thieves keep making these attacks is because peopl e pay them", he said.
There's been a steady rise in the number of such attacks, according to[5] a report released last November by Intel Corp.'s McAfee Labs.
Commenting on such incidents that have happened in the past, FBI Special Agent Thomas Grasso, who is part of the government's efforts to fight malicious software including ransomware said, "Bitcoins, the online currency that is hard to trace, were quickly becoming the preferred way hackers collect a ransom". Ultimately, Hollywood Presbyterian paid $17,000 in bitcoins to resolve the situation. Worries about the phenomenon, in which hackers hold computer files ransom, escalated after hackers took[6] hold of a California hospital's IT system and reportedly demanded around $3.5 million to relinquish control.
He said the systems were back up on Monday and there was no evidence that patient or employee information had been compromised.
