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View Full Version : Cyber attack news: Hollywood hospital pays $17,000 in bitcoins as ransom




Son_of_Liberty90
02-22-2016, 11:46 PM
Really? A hospital? Don't these losers have anything better to do with their pathetic lives?

http://www.christianexaminer.com/article/cyber-attack-hollywood-hospital-pays-17000-in-bitcoins-as-ransom/50294.htm



The Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center was cyber-attacked last week, leaving their systems offline for over a week. This prompted the healthcare providers in the facility to resort back to pens, paper and fax machines.
The ransomware ― a malicious software used by attackers that halts any activity on a targeted computer then asks for a ransom for the restoration of the machine ― was first denied by hospital president and CEO Allen Stefanek but said that the Los Angeles Police Department and FBI were conducting an investigation on who is responsible for the said attack, BBC (http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35584081) reported.
It wasn't until Wednesday that the Stefanek said they paid the hackers a ransom of $17,000 in bitcoins, equivalent to $7 million, which is almost twice the amount the hackers first (http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/16/the-hospital-held-hostage-by-hackers.html) demanded.

"The malware locks systems by encrypting files and demanding ransom to obtain the decryption key," said Stefanek in a statement as reported by the LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-hollywood-hospital-bitcoin-20160217-story.html). "The quickest and most efficient way to restore our systems and administrative functions was to pay the ransom and obtain the decryption key. In the best in interest of restoring normal operations, we did this."
According to the report by NBC Los Angeles (http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/FBI-LAPD-Investigating-Hollywood-Hospital-Cyber-Attack-368703121.html), a staff at the hospital said that it was "declared an internal emergency." However, Stefanek addressed that patient care and hospital records were not affected in any way.
Some patients, however, complained of some delays in the processing of their medical tests or during their checkups.
Melissa Garza, a patient being treated by the hospital, told Fox LA (http://www.foxla.com/news/local-news/89941411-story), "I wasn't feeling very well, went in for a checkup and they said they're computers were down. I asked, 'what's going on here' and they said 'we were hacked.'"
LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-hollywood-hospital-bitcoin-20160217-story.html) gathered a statement from Phil Lieberman, a cyber security expert. He said ransomware on a medical institution is not very common.
"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."
On the other hand, Tim Erlin, director of IT Security and Risk Strategy at Tripwire (an enterprise cybersecurity firm), told CNBC (http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/16/the-hospital-held-hostage-by-hackers.html), "It's a good reminder that you don't have to attack the medical device to attack its ability to deliver care. The IT infected was things like email, but the inability to access those systems degrades the ability to deliver care."

dannno
02-22-2016, 11:50 PM
There are worse people running our government - but you know, this could be a false flag against bitcoin as well, I wouldn't put it past them.

Son_of_Liberty90
02-22-2016, 11:54 PM
There are worse people running our government - but you know, this could be a false flag against bitcoin as well, I wouldn't put it past them.

Yea no angels in our govt either--Can't really comment about the bitcoin bit because I haven't done enough research into this yet.

dannno
02-22-2016, 11:57 PM
Yea no angels in our govt either--Can't really comment about the bitcoin bit because I haven't done enough research into this yet.

Bitcoin is an open source crypto currency which provides an alternative to fiat currency with a set inflation rate that pays for the computational power for the network. It's a threat to central banking itself.

Petar
02-22-2016, 11:58 PM
Well, at least it proves that bitcoin is good for something.

jbauer
02-23-2016, 11:21 AM
Bitcoin is an open source crypto currency which provides an alternative to fiat currency with a set inflation rate that pays for the computational power for the network. It's a threat to central banking itself.

Is there a 0% chance of bitcoin being able to track down and recover the ransom? .Gov wants Apple to hack their system, could they do the same to Bitcoin?

muh_roads
02-23-2016, 12:07 PM
Is there a 0% chance of bitcoin being able to track down and recover the ransom? .Gov wants Apple to hack their system, could they do the same to Bitcoin?

It can be easy to track if the attacker doesn't know what they are doing with their coins after receipt...like using Fold to buy Starbucks with their stealings. A smart attacker would use something like ShapeShift to hop to a different blockchain (like Litecoin) and then hop back to Bitcoin which would result in reappearing on a completely different section of Bitcoin's blockchain.

I've said too much...lol

LibForestPaul
02-24-2016, 06:38 AM
It can be easy to track if the attacker doesn't know what they are doing with their coins after receipt...like using Fold to buy Starbucks with their stealings. A smart attacker would use something like ShapeShift to hop to a different blockchain (like Litecoin) and then hop back to Bitcoin which would result in reappearing on a completely different section of Bitcoin's blockchain.

I've said too much...lol

So bitcoins are not anonymous. Useless.

presence
02-24-2016, 08:46 AM
I'm confused. did they pay 17,000 BTC or 17,000 USD ???


said they paid the hackers a ransom of $17,000 in bitcoins, equivalent to $7 million

muh_roads
02-25-2016, 04:20 PM
So bitcoins are not anonymous. Useless.

Did you even read what I said, Mr. Biased?

Cliffs-notes...by default it is pseudonymous. With light effort it is anonymous.