Hackers Demand $3.6 Million From Hollywood Hospital Following Cyber-Attack

[Batu69]

Hospital staff severely impeded in their day-to-day work

The Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, a 430+ beds hospital in the middle of Los Angeles, has been hit by a cyber-attack and its systems are now being held hostage by hackers that are demanding a ransom.

The incident took place at the start of February but was kept quiet the hospital's staff and management, who called in local police and the FBI to help investigate the incident, along with a cyber-forensics firm.

Hackers want 9,000 Bitcoin

The hackers are requesting a 9,000 Bitcoin ransom, which is about $3.6 million (€3.2 million) in today's currency to release the "electronic keys" to unlock computers. There are no details about how this happened since everyone is keeping quiet, but two plausible scenarios exist.

The first is that ransomware hit the hospital's IT network and spread to numerous computers via a local LAN server, and the total ransom for each infected computer amounts to around 9,000 Bitcoin.

The second is that hackers breached the hospital's IT network and infected the most important computers with ransomware, asking for more money than usual after realizing the target's potential.

Some hospital departments have been shut down

NBC Los Angeles is reporting that the hospital's IT network has been crippled, and that staff is redirecting emergencies to other hospitals.

The hospital's staff is using pen and paper to record patient information, using fax to communicate with other departments, and patients need to come in person to the hospital to pick up test results since the email servers are inaccessible.

Management has also forbidden staff to turn on their computers, fearing more workstations will be affected by the incident. Because computers are crucial for some medical equipment, the hospital's Radiation and Oncology departments have been completely shut down, inside sources told The Medical Quack, a blog for US healthcare news.

"At this time, we have no evidence that any patient or employee information was the subject of unauthorized access or extraction by the attacker," Allen Stefanek, the hospital's CEO told NBC4.

Article source

[vibranium]

C'mon hackers, it's a hospital. Lives are at stake. Give it a rest already!

[Holmes]

I agree this is a unacceptable hack not good not good at all.

[knowledge-Spammer]

not nice hackers

[straycat19]

Time to take off the gloves.  Instead of search and arrest we need to search and destroy, literally. The only good black hat hacker is a dead hacker, I don't have a problem with doing that.  They prefer computers, I prefer guns, and you shouldn't bring a computer to a gun fight.

[Pequi]

A lot of children died at the local cancer hospital when it was hit by malware, because doctors could not remember if they had administered radiation or medication the day before, and what doses. Backups were done weekdays only. That said, the hacker probably did not target the hospital, it was likely some psycopath's little trojan or even a foreign government hack that went wrong.

 

As to the ransomware above, killing the guy who owns the botted OS that the real hackers use to comunicate will just mean one more innocent person dead.

I say, catch the hackers, and put them on trial for them for murder, or attempted murder (if no one dies). There is undeniable evidence that they mean physical harm to others.

[mikie]

Terrorist, plain and simple. 

Think how some will suffer and maybe even die from this.

[truemate]

don't cross ur limits so called pussy begger hackers

& yea agree they are terrorist

[Holmes]

It wouldnt surprise me if this was a result of north korea I dont want to point fingers I do have to say kim jong un is human garbage.  If north korea is not behind this then i really hope they find out who did this what a disgusting act.  The worst organization in the world to target is a hospital.  My friend works as a IT analyst at a hospital in my city they are in good hands as hes one of the best hackers I know unfortunately if a ransomware that uses RSA two thousand fortyeight hit I dont think he could crack it it or not knowing him he makes backups of hospital data every chance he gets everybody should do that.  I hope the damage caused isnt that much and they can recover.

[straycat19]

I believe, at this point in time, it makes no difference if you are the writer of the hack/script or a script kiddie that obtained it and used it.  Both are legally culpable and both should be shot.  I call this bullet rehabilitation, it is the only kind of rehabilitation that is guaranteed to work, and it is quick and cheap.  No lawyers, no drawn out court cases costing cities millions of dollars, and no chance for the evil bastards to re-offend.

[Holmes]

The hospital paid the ransom:

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35602527

 

Those hackers can go to hell.