Hackers demand $3m bitcoin ransom from hospital to unlock vital files

[TTBit]

On a related note, there is an IT opening in a Los Angeles hospital. Inquire within.

[TTBit]

Hackers, please demand $10.0 million in US dollars OR $3.0 million in BTC.

This way, BTC saves this hospital $7.0 million. Bitcoin saving lives and money.

[iwasneverhere]

This is just crazy the lengths they will go to. At the least this should also raise awareness for data backup, redundancy and protection.

[... ...]

The hacker is not a robber, but a murderer!

[JessyMatt]

They released the computers for $17k....40 bitcoins: http://www.bitcoinvalues.net/hollywood-hospital-pays-hackers-40-bitcoin-worth-17000-release-computers.html

[target]

They released the computers for $17k....40 bitcoins: http://www.bitcoinvalues.net/hollywood-hospital-pays-hackers-40-bitcoin-worth-17000-release-computers.html

Even if they lower it to just 17K USD, that don't make them less criminal. Once caught they will be prosecuted, the lives of the people involve is no joke.

[Gleb Gamow]

This sucks! We here at BCT were left outta the loop during the entire ordeal with resolve taking place prior to us first posting about the event on this board. I'd say we need to sit down with the hacker(s) so that we don't ever get embarrassed again.

[FlyingSaucer]

The situation must have been really bad if the hospital decided to send them bitcoins. Now Bitcoin will be associated with ransoms and extortionists.

[Kakmakr]

"Stefanek insisted that no patients personal information and care were compromised during the takeover. - See more at: http://www.bitcoinvalues.net/hollywood-hospital-pays-hackers-40-bitcoin-worth-17000-release-computers.html#sthash.2VCS9f78.dpuf

Not that it matters but it is still a fktub thing to do. I hope these and other institutions learn something from this and increase their security and firewalls and make offline backups.

[the_poet]

http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/17/technology/hospital-bitcoin-ransom/

Wow that really sucks.

[ProfessionalGoogler]

What is the Bitcoin address they sent the BTC to?

[--Encrypted--]

What is the Bitcoin address they sent the BTC to?

good question. they should release it in public so anyone can monitor the movement. not just authorities. (here hoping that the hackers did/will do something really stupid and get caught quickly.)

edit:
and the real amount.

[twister]

Whatever happened to "We don't negotiate with terrorists"

If they keep feeding these bastards they'll keep coming back for more and more copy cats will be born.

[--Encrypted--]

Whatever happened to "We don't negotiate with terrorists"

If they keep feeding these bastards they'll keep coming back for more and more copy cats will be born.

the hospital paid the ransom. not the government.
didn't know this before but they're a private hospital, not a public one.

[xuan87]

This will make bitcoin reputation crumble, this is a very stupid hacker, he will make the money he receive will become smaller amount, when he is doing this kind of things i am sure bitcoin price will go down

[Cuidler]

They released the computers for $17k....40 bitcoins: http://www.bitcoinvalues.net/hollywood-hospital-pays-hackers-40-bitcoin-worth-17000-release-computers.html

Even though $17k might be lower amount than losing the data, it just encourage the hackers to continue with what they doing. Very selfish from the hospital, unless these lost data are very important - but what would happened if these HDD/s just naturally broken?

[DimensionZ]

What is the Bitcoin address they sent the BTC to?

good question. they should release it in public so anyone can monitor the movement. not just authorities. (here hoping that the hackers did/will do something really stupid and get caught quickly.)

edit:
and the real amount.

The perpetrators will probably run them through a tumbler and run away with everything, it's highly unlikely any traces will be found to the actual coins.

[mavrick951]

Obviously either the hospital had no desire to up-keep computer security maintenance on necessary files and they didn't want to spend the extra expense or they flat out were not prepared. If data can't be accessed regarding patient's conditions and issues, how would medical personal even know what to treat an individual for besides physical written paper? As a medical establishment, this was bound to happen at some point in time. As terrible as this sounds, this doesn't look good for bitcoin and these people have no morals to be playing grim-reaper with people's lives.

[cointinflas]

I work for a state agency and someone put ransomeware on some of the network drives a few months ago.  The funny thing about it was that the perpetrators only wanted something like 0.75 bitcoins.  The agency did not pay the ransom.  They have all the data backed up every night, so they just reloaded the previous day's data and we just lost part of a day's worth of work.

[russian_pete]

This is insane. There's not bottomline for human madness and cruelty. People who regard money above human lives are not worth the food they eat. 

so sad to see this kind of thing happening in 21st century...