By: Kayla Thrailkill and Daniel McDonough<\/p>\n
Ransomware locked hospital files causing delays in patient care, and a\u00a0need to transfer patients to other facilities….<\/strong><\/p>\n The only full-service community hospital in Southern California, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center,\u00a0was hacked last Friday.\u00a0 This lead to various files being encrypted causing the\u00a0hospital to declare an “internal emergency”. <\/a>Almost a week later, there are still IT issues, and patients reported experiencing delays in patient care.\u00a0 Due to the ransomware, patient records are inaccessible.\u00a0 Because of this, some patients have been\u00a0sent to other facilities.<\/p>\n Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center has been actively working with the FBI in an attempt to determine who is responsible for the malware.\u00a0 They also hired computer forensics experts to try and decrypt the files, but were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n The ransomware scammers were requesting the equivalent of 3.4 million dollars in digital funds called Bitcoins<\/a>, in exchange for the encryption key.\u00a0 It was announced earlier today that the hospital indeed paid the scammers.\u00a0 But much less than the original request.\u00a0 According to the Los Angeles Times<\/a>, the medical center paid the equivalent of $17,000, in Bitcoins, for the encryption key.<\/p>\n There are no current leads on how the ransomware accessed the hospital’s files.\u00a0 KnowBe4<\/a> believes it could\u00a0have been a\u00a0socially engineered attack that could have been avoidable had employees had security awareness training.\u00a0 Dodi Glenn, PC Pitstop’s Vice President of Cybersecurity, reported how ransomware scams are initiated to International Business Times<\/a>,<\/p>\n “They\u00a0throw out a wide chum net and whoever bites, bites.\u00a0 It’s a highly transactional business.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sources:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/hollywood-hospital-becomes-ransomware-victim\/<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/news\/local\/Hollywood-Hospital-Victim-of-Cyber-Attack-368574071.html<\/a><\/p>\n blog.knowbe4.com\/ransomware-roundup-1\/15\/2016?ransomwarehitshospital=<\/a><\/p>\n