Hackers made off with significantly more money in an attack on a Los Angeles hospital around the same time, forcing officials to pay $17,000 in bitcoin to unlock the electronic medical record system.
Last month the FBI issued a flash alert that captured the sophistication of the new strains of ransomware that are afflicting entire networks. “The bad guys burrow into a system often months in advance, map out the network, and then deploy the ransomware at what they believe to be the most critical assets of the organization,” said James Pastore, a former federal prosecutor in New York who worked on a ransomware case involving the Eastern European crime ring Blackshades. In that case, the FBI cooperated with authorities in 18 countries to make 90 arrests in May 2014.
http://www.union-bulletin.com/news/business/hackers-can-hold-a-town-hostage-and-they-want-ransom/article_01024a86-ef78-11e5-8f1e-8f62ea87d49f.html
