When it comes to ransomware, there are no lengths that people won’t go to get a little bit of money. While ransomware has been around everyday systems for a while, it is becoming an increasingly worrying trend that groups employing ransomware have targeted large organisations or even hospitals. The idea behind ransomware is simple; pay or never get access to your systems again. When a group got their first payment from Kansas Heart Hospital it wasn’t enough, requesting that they get a second ransom payment, only to receive nothing.
The Hospitals president, Dr Greg Durick stated that they had paid a “small amount” in ransom only to find that the hackers then refused to grant them access. When the group requested more money in the form of a second ransom demand, the hospital and their consultants agreed that it wasn’t going to be “a wise manoeuvre or strategy” to communicate with the group. With a backup plan already in place, the Hospital started working on getting their systems back in place, with Durick stating that the backup plan “helped in minimising the amount of damage the encrypted agent could do”.
With no patient information affected and operations unaffected by the systems downtime, the hospital is happy to keep going on about their daily business. Of course, this is the latest example in a long list of hospitals that are being targeted for cybercrime. Therefore, is there truly no boundaries groups will cross for money?
