Not long ago, the computer system of MedStar Health in Washington DC and Maryland was infected by malware, thus rendering it useless.
The announcement, which was made on the 28th of March talked about the virus, which disabled office-based physicians from logging into their accounts, and entering patient data into the electronic health record program. At that moment in time, it was also stated that no associate or patient data had been compromised as a result from the hack.
During the last couple of days, the MedStar Health which sums up to 10 hospitals and over 6,000 doctors managed to clean a part of their network. However, reports about a ransomware attack quickly sprung to life, following the hack that affected the Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, which paid $17,000 in bitcoin to regain access to their computer system.
Recently, it was confirmed that the MedStar Health system was actually infected by ransomware. Hackers reportedly asked for 3 bitcoin (roughly $1,250) to unlock one computer, or a total of 45 bitcoin (roughly $18,500), to unlock the rest of the computers.
In a recent statement, the hospital’s management team stated that while the attack created quite a couple of operational challenges and inconveniences, it is moving towards complete restoration. This can mean one of two things. Either the hospital has managed to find a way to manually unlock their computers, or they’re considering paying the ransom.
Based on everything that has been outlined so far, what do you personally think about the recent ransomware attacks targeting hospitals? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
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