The Hollywood hospital paid the ransom to the hackers that paralyzed their computer systems for over a week. They paid nearly $17,000 in bitcoins to hackers because paying was in the best interest of the hospital and most efficient way to solve the problem. Unfortunately, I agree. It was unclear if anyone had recommended the hospital pay off the hackers. Law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times the ransom was paid before authorities were called to help.
The hospital said it alerted authorities on Monday and was able to restore its network by Monday with the help of technology experts, according to the Los Angeles Times. Stefanek said patient care was never compromised, nor were any hospital records.
My last blog talked about whether to pay or not to pay. There’s always the issue of throwing money at a problem. In this case, it was too important not to. Was this a hospital problem, or a government problem? The FBI is investigating, but will they be able to solve it? I am hoping that the awareness this has created will help us find a solution sooner, rather than later. Another solution would be for the anitvirus vendors like Symantec, Malwarebytes, Kaspersky or others to help find a solution. Either way, we need a fix…soon.
I’m going to go on my soapbox again about having good backups. Make sure you TEST your backups on a regular basis. You always find out you didn’t have a good backup when you need to restore from your backup! I’ve seen it time and time again. Keep in mind that it is a HIPAA requirement to test your backups. It’s really simple to do. Delete a file and restore it. Done.
Protect yourself!
