Ransomware Leaves Ohio Clinic Inoperable
We’ve heard of ransomware infections infecting hospitals and clinics. We’ve also heard that at times patients have been sent away because some of the more sophisticated procedures could not be done. Now, a medical clinic in northeastern Ohio has been completely shut down due to a ransomware attack. Pulmonary Physicians is now on its fifth day without critical files, making it impossible to see patients. The facility was keeping all of their files stored on servers in the cloud through Allscripts. Last week, Allscripts was hit with a ransomware attack. It was this attack that led to the encryption of Pulmonary Physicians’ data.
At this time, it remains unknown how long it will take to unlock the files. Understandably, all impacted facilities want this resolved as soon as possible. However, to the only way to get business operational again, after a ransomware infection is to restore using backup files. This can be incredibly time consuming. So, time consuming in fact, a hospital in Indiana recently paid the $55,000 ransom demand, even when they had backup files because it was more cost effective to pay the demands and gain almost immediate access to their files again. Although, PC Matic does not encourage ransomware victims pay the ransom demands. By doing so, a target goes on the facility for future ransomware attacks. There is also no guarantee that paying the ransom demands will unlock the files.
To review the ransomware attacks that have taken place throughout the U.S. PC Matic has created an interactive map. Users can click on any plotted area and find out what facility was infected, and if they paid the ransom demands.
