Hollywood hospital pays $17,000 in bitcoins to hackers who took control of computers

[Kablooie]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center paid a $17,000 ransom in bitcoins to a hacker who seized control of hospital's computer systems and would only give back access when the money was paid, the hospital's chief executive said Wednesday.

The assault on Hollywood Presbyterian computers occurred Feb. 5, when hackers using malware infected the institution's computers, preventing hospital staff from being able to communicate from those devices, said CEO Allen Stefanak. With the help of experts, the hospital was able to restore its electronic medical record system by Monday, he said in a statement.

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The attack has forced the hospital to return to pen-and-paper for its record keeping.

Phil Lieberman, a cyber security expert, said while ransomware attacks are common one targeting a medical institution are not. "I have never heard of this kind of attack trying to shutdown a hospital. This puts lives at risk and it is sicking to see such an act," he said. "Health management systems are beginning to tighten their security."

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-hollywood-hospital-bitcoin-20160217-story.html

[Raster]

1. This deserves the death penalty, plain and simple.

Use the tremendous computing power of the NSA, find the hackers that did this. Publicly execute them as a warning to others that would attempt the same.
:partialsarcasm:

[Kablooie]

5. They are probably in some other country.

And no guarantee that country has good relations with the US.

[Odin2005]

14. I usually assume these people are Russian.

[Xithras]

19. Not so often any longer.

It certainly started in the Russian mafia, but it's so lucrative that it's now spread to criminals around the world. A LOT of it is coming from China and Pakistan. Coinvault was traced to a Dutch group. Moneypak is believed to have come from Germany. Cryptolocker, probably the most famous, was originally written by a Russian hacker but was ultimately discovered to have been run as a federated service by different groups around the globe.

Hell, nowadays there are CLOUD BASED cryptolocker-spinoffs that allow various crime groups to use shared API's to outsource this type of thing. It's a multimillion dollar a year business, and like any business it has "tiers". A crime group in Australia that wants to do some fundraising might contract with a hacker group in China to execute an attack that is based on a Russian botnet pushing an American written encryption trojan. I only wish I was kidding.

[trillion]

21. We have our own right here.

[trillion]

20. They did very wrong. Okay, so the hackers get their money and then what, show up in a week and do

it again? OR, move on to the next place because they proved they can successfully do this with that place? I tend to think bullies come back for the easy hit.

I don't think the hackers should get the dp but very lengthy prison terms are in order.

[2naSalit]

2. Ah, the crimewave of the future...

or is it just cyber crime du jour?

[forest444]

3. And now the Feds demand that Apple create software that could hack everyone's iPhones.

Makes you wonder who's worse, really.

[earthshine]

12. The security state uses events like this to increase their budgets and reach.

Actually solving problems would show that they have adequate finances and legal authorities.

They want more, more, more, for reasons that are beyond our understanding, having something to do with serving "the deep state."

[hollowdweller]

4. I'm unclear

Did they pay it and it got reopened by the hackers or was it like the FBI money pac virus where people pay it but nothing happens?

[GummyBearz]

6. Interesting duality

10 years ago I was in a California hospital and they were demanding $17,000 before they would let me go (even with my dad's high end state employee insurance).

Kinda blurs the lines for me in this case

[davidthegnome]

9. That must be illegal.

Do state laws in California let them do that? I mean, hold you against your will until you pay up? Or... what, send you to prison if you can't pay? Damn.

[GummyBearz]

15. I dunno

it was more like "you have to sign this to be released"

[noretreatnosurrender]

7. Crazy

And they want us to have our elections on line.

[Thor_MN]

8. Considering that hackers were asking for $3.4 million...

It sounds like there was awesome bargaining taking place. Too bad that we have to pay whatever the "healthcare" industry demands...


(For the record, the hackers should be drawn and quartered.)

[jmowreader]

10. Hollywood Presbyterian didn't have an image backup?

Call me naive, but a hospital should be backed up to the point where if a ransomware attack DID happen (or a disk drive crashed, a fire in the server closet, or any other catastrophe happened) they'd simply need to drop the system, low-level format their hard drives, and restore from the last clean backup they had.

[earthshine]

11. It's probably an older and weaker system.

Oh, for sure, you are not the naïve one here.

It's frightening how many major institutions have inadequate security on their systems.

The first rule of security is not a firewall; it is the backup!

[Kablooie]

13. I'm sure many large company systems are not managed properly.

Like Sony. Huge movie studio, small, poorly paid, second rate IT department.
Businesses don't have any idea how vulnerable they are.

And if Apple loses its current protest and is forced to break into one of their phones, that technology will certainly soon appear in China, Iran and N Korea so everything Americans do can be spied on and manipulated by foreign powers.

[trillion]

22. 16 years of serious cuts to IT. I thgink you nailed it. And with outsourcing

to the cheapest bidder, and taking cheapest imported temp labor they can get, I think their infrastructures are suffering.

[valerief]

16. Like someone said, the hacker was probably someone in another country, but wouldn't it be ironic

if the hacker was an American who needed the money to pay for a dire medical procedure or medicine? At least, that's how I'd write the novel.

[Blue_Tires]

17. Meanwhile, in other news:

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/17/massachusetts-man-arrested-for-hacking-hospital-following-cruise-ship-rescue.html


Hope his attorney accepts bitcoins...

[Oneironaut]

18. No backed up data?

I blame the hospital for this. Viruses are a part of life. There's no reason not to have mulitple backups.

[trillion]

23. +10000