The internal network at a hospital in Los Angeles have been down for more than a week after being infected with ransomware. For that reason, all the patients at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center have been transferred to other hospitals. Due to the ransomware infection, the connected medical devices and portals are currently offline, as well.
In order to decrypt the hospital’s files, hackers have asked for more than $3.6 million. Presently, the stuff should use fax machines and landline telephones to get their work done, and the medical records are being kept on paper.
The hospital did not comment the situation yet, and has not elaborated on how far the attack has spread, what kind of ransomware infected its network, or how it was even infected in the first place.
The news agencies reported that the incident was random, likely meaning a hospital staffer clicked a malicious link or attachment that ultimately spread the malware throughout the network.
This ransom request has been considered as one of the most outstanding lately, though, it was not the first to impact an integral institution.
During the past five years, some public schools and police departments worldwide have also been infected with ransomware, which culminated in one FBI official advising victims to pay up.
However, presently it looks like law enforcement is teaming up with international agencies to identify and bring down scam operators.
Regarding the most recent case with the hospital’s network, the stuff is working with the Los Angeles Police Department and FBI to identify the attackers and remove the ransomware from their systems.
