Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center paid hackers who locked its computer network down for 10 days $17,000 to bring it back online, the hospital’s president and chief executive said Wednesday in a letter posted online.
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The identity of the ransomware attackers is still unknown, but some reports have suggested that the attack was random rather than specifically targeted at the hospital. Ali Velshi, host of “Ali Velshi on Target” on Al Jazeera America, joins Here & Now’s Robin Young with details.
The statement said also: “Patient care has not been compromised in any way”.
Given that law enforcers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and LAPD were said to have been drafted in to investigate the attack, it seems that their advice was to pay the ransom – hinting that the variant used was one which couldn’t be cracked, like Cryptowall.
The hospital opted to pay the ransom before notifying authorities. “In the best interest of restoring normal operations, we did this”, said Stefanek.
Allen Stefanek, CEO of the 434-bed Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, said that it was the fastest option available with hospital administration to gain control to its digital systems. Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center’s network had been held by hackers for little more than a week.
Ransomware is a form of malware which infects a victim’s computer, locking it, and demanding that a ransom – often in bitcoins – be paid in order to restore access.
The math behind whether to pay a ransom demand can be simple.
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Two police departments in MA recently paid off ransomware hackers after losing access to their files. Both agencies are investigating the matter. Intrusion detection systems and firewalls can help if a person does click but once the ransomware is entrenched, if the system does not have good system backup practices, the choices boil down to paying or never regaining control. Symantec, the maker of antivirus software, estimated that in 2013, the number of attacks each month rose from 100,000 in January to 600,000 in December, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
