Three more hospitals were hit with ransomware, leading one of which to declare an internal emergency…
The ransomware, Locky, infected a Henderson, Kentucky based medical center late last week. It is reported that that the malicious virus tried to spread throughout the entire internal network of Methodist Hospital, and was successful in compromising various systems. According to Krebs on Security, on Friday, March 18, 2016, the hospital declared an internal state of emergency after losing access to multiple web-based services and electronic communications. The attack was originated through a malicious email that requested the recipients to open an attachment regarding invoices.
The ransom that was being demanded was four bitcoins, or roughly USD $1,600. Healthcare Informatics reported the Methodist Hospital did not pay the ransom, and is indeed back up and running. Hospital officials reported the investigation is ongoing, and denied any patient records being leaked.
Two Southern California hospitals were also hit with ransomware last Friday. The hospitals affected were Chino Valley Medical Center and Desert Valley Hospital. The specifics of the attacks are not being disclosed; however it is reported by Kaiser Health News, that the hospitals remain operational and are taking measures to restore their systems.
As we all know, this is not the first ransomware attack on a hospital. Just weeks ago, Hollywood Presbyterian was attacked with a USD $17,000 demand for payment. Hollywood Presbyterian did end up paying the $17,000 demand to obtain the encryption key in order to regain access to their files.
Check out our interactive, live map of the ransomware attacks that have taken place within the U.S. below:
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Thank you Pitstop for providing this extra service. I think your product is GREAT!!!
I have installed Malware bites anti ramsonware beta. It’s still under testing but it’s better than having no protection at all.
I don’t think they specifically target hospitals otherwise the ransom would not be so low.
Hospitals may be more vulnerable as they deal with a lot of outside agencies besides the patients.
Is PC Pitstop supposed to stop ransomware? I run PC Pitstop and I got hit with it.
I am uncertain which PC Pitstop product you have. Please contact our technical support team to help address the issue. You can contact them at http://www.pcmatic.com/help.
Yes it seems at times that the bottom line is more important than our info. If ceo’s and others at the table would apply part of their bonus’s they’d still have a bonus and our info could be a little more secure. Aign of the times I guess.
Nick
As a person who repairs pc’s for personal and small business I learned from my own hand the value of back-up your system.
I regularly back-up data and once a month or so I update my system image and have not lost data I wasn’t willing to loose in quite some time.
The worst case scenario is my computer has some work to do.
On the other hand I’ve also found some that were only beatable after fixing the BIOS.
A little precaution can save expensive things like hair dye.;-)
@Nick: Looks like hospitals are an easy target with their outdated systems. Hopefully, others will learn from this before it gets to rampant.