a $ 17,000 ransomAttack.Ransomin bitcoin to a hacker who seized control of the hospital 's computer systems and would give back access only when the money was paidAttack.Ransom, the hospital 's chief executive said Wednesday . The assaultAttack.Ransomon Hollywood Presbyterian occurred Feb 5 , when hackers using malware infected the institution 's computers , preventing hospital staff from being able to communicate from those devices , said Chief Executive Allen Stefanek . The hacker demandedAttack.Ransom40 bitcoin , the equivalent of about $ 17,000 , he said . `` The malware locks systems by encrypting files and demanding ransomAttack.Ransomto obtain the decryption key . The quickest and most efficient way to restore our systems and administrative functions was to pay the ransomAttack.Ransomand obtain the decryption key , '' Stefanek said . `` In the best interest of restoring normal operations , we did this . '' The hospital said it alerted authorities and was able to regain control of all its computer systems by Monday , with the assistance of technology experts . Stefanek said patient care was never compromisedAttack.Databreach, nor were hospital records . Top hospital officials called the Los Angeles Police Department last week , according to police Lt John Jenal . Laura Eimiller , an FBI spokeswoman , said the bureau has taken over the hacking investigation but declined to discuss specifics of the case . Law enforcement sources told The Times that the hospital paid the ransomAttack.Ransombefore reaching out to law enforcement for assistance . The attack forced the hospital to return to pen and paper for its record-keeping .
Bristol Airport authorities were recently forced to take their flight information system displays offline for two days to contain a ransomware attackAttack.Ransom. The authorities dismissed the ransom demandAttack.Ransomand decided to rebuild the affected systems . For two days , flight status information was displayed on whiteboards and there was an increase in announcements over the speakers . Similarly , in the last few months there have been several cyberattacks targeting hospitals , city administration and sporting events . The servers of the US-based PGA were reportedly hit by ransomwareAttack.Ransomattacks right before the PGA Championship in the first week of August . A new ransomware called Everlasting Blue Blackmail Virus , which targets Windows PCs using spam and phishing campaignsAttack.Phishing, flashes former US President Barrack Obama ’ s image with the ransom message . Once the ransomware gains entry into the system , its looks for all .exe ( executable ) files and encrypts them , preventing users from running apps until the ransom is paidAttack.Ransom. Hot on the heels of the cyberattackAttack.Ransomon the town of Valdez in Alaska , Canadian town Midland in Ontario was hit by a ransomware attackAttack.Ransomin the first week of September . Hackers broke into the city database involving fire , water , and waste management and blocked access , demanding ransomAttack.Ransom. A major concern for cybersecurity experts is the fileless attacks , which are hard to detect . These attacks do not install a malicious software to infiltrate a victim ’ s computer , which makes it difficult for anti-virus solutions to detect them . According to Ponemon Institute , 35 % of all cyberattacks in 2018 were fileless , while security solution provider Carbon Black claims that fileless attacks accounted for 50 % of all successful data breachesAttack.Databreachtargeting financial businesses . Fileless attacks target legitimate Windows tools such as PowerShell ( a scripting language which can provide hackers unrestricted access to Windows API ) and Windows Management Instrumentation ( used by admins ) . By latching on to these tools , hackers gain control over the PC and eventually the organization ’ s database . In another recent development , researchers at F-Secure have come across a new vulnerability affecting PCs . Dubbed as cold boot , the attack can be carried off using a special programme through a USB drive connected to a PC . Using the programme , the hacker can disable the memory overwriting by rebooting the system , without a proper shutdown . The attack can be used to break into company system which might have access to the company network .
The Cyber Cell of Navi Mumbai police is investigating the case , DCP Doshi said . `` We are trying to ascertain the Internet Protocol Address ( IP ) from where the email ( demanding ransomAttack.Ransom) originated , '' Doshi said Computer systems of a private hospital in Navi Mumbai have come under a malware attack , with attackers seeking ransomAttack.Ransomin Bitcoins , police today said . The cyber attackAttack.Ransomon the computer systems of Mahatma Gandhi Mission Hospital came to light on July 15 , police said . Hospital administrators found the systems locked , with an encrypted message by unidentified attackers demanding ransomAttack.Ransomin Bitcoins to unlock it , said Tushar Doshi , Deputy Commissioner of Police ( Crime ) . Authorities found that access to the data of the previous 15 days had been blocked . Such attacks are described as ` ransomware' attacksAttack.Ransom, where a malicious software enters the victim 's computer system , and the attackers threaten to publish the data or block access to it unless a ransom is paidAttack.Ransom. The Cyber Cell of Navi Mumbai police is investigating the case , DCP Doshi said . `` We are trying to ascertain the Internet Protocol Address ( IP ) from where the email ( demanding ransomAttack.Ransom) originated , '' Doshi said . Computerised billing and medicine prescription system were affected due to the malware attack , but the hospital maintains a written record of all its data , he said . Cyber experts were trying to get the system back on track , the DCP said . A case under section 43 ( hacking ) of the Information Technology Act has been registered with the Vashi Police Station . Among the recent cyber attacks of this kind , the ` WannaCry ransomware attackAttack.Ransom' of May 2017 infected more than 2,30,000 computers across 150 countries .
The Cyber Cell of Navi Mumbai police is investigating the case , DCP Doshi said . `` We are trying to ascertain the Internet Protocol Address ( IP ) from where the email ( demanding ransomAttack.Ransom) originated , '' Doshi said Computer systems of a private hospital in Navi Mumbai have come under a malware attack , with attackers seeking ransomAttack.Ransomin Bitcoins , police today said . The cyber attackAttack.Ransomon the computer systems of Mahatma Gandhi Mission Hospital came to light on July 15 , police said . Hospital administrators found the systems locked , with an encrypted message by unidentified attackers demanding ransomAttack.Ransomin Bitcoins to unlock it , said Tushar Doshi , Deputy Commissioner of Police ( Crime ) . Authorities found that access to the data of the previous 15 days had been blocked . Such attacks are described as ` ransomware' attacksAttack.Ransom, where a malicious software enters the victim 's computer system , and the attackers threaten to publish the data or block access to it unless a ransom is paidAttack.Ransom. The Cyber Cell of Navi Mumbai police is investigating the case , DCP Doshi said . `` We are trying to ascertain the Internet Protocol Address ( IP ) from where the email ( demanding ransomAttack.Ransom) originated , '' Doshi said . Computerised billing and medicine prescription system were affected due to the malware attack , but the hospital maintains a written record of all its data , he said . Cyber experts were trying to get the system back on track , the DCP said . A case under section 43 ( hacking ) of the Information Technology Act has been registered with the Vashi Police Station . Among the recent cyber attacks of this kind , the ` WannaCry ransomware attackAttack.Ransom' of May 2017 infected more than 2,30,000 computers across 150 countries .
The Cyber Cell of Navi Mumbai police is investigating the case , DCP Doshi said . `` We are trying to ascertain the Internet Protocol Address ( IP ) from where the email ( demanding ransomAttack.Ransom) originated , '' Doshi said Computer systems of a private hospital in Navi Mumbai have come under a malware attack , with attackers seeking ransomAttack.Ransomin Bitcoins , police today said . The cyber attackAttack.Ransomon the computer systems of Mahatma Gandhi Mission Hospital came to light on July 15 , police said . Hospital administrators found the systems locked , with an encrypted message by unidentified attackers demanding ransomAttack.Ransomin Bitcoins to unlock it , said Tushar Doshi , Deputy Commissioner of Police ( Crime ) . Authorities found that access to the data of the previous 15 days had been blocked . Such attacks are described as ` ransomware' attacksAttack.Ransom, where a malicious software enters the victim 's computer system , and the attackers threaten to publish the data or block access to it unless a ransom is paidAttack.Ransom. The Cyber Cell of Navi Mumbai police is investigating the case , DCP Doshi said . `` We are trying to ascertain the Internet Protocol Address ( IP ) from where the email ( demanding ransomAttack.Ransom) originated , '' Doshi said . Computerised billing and medicine prescription system were affected due to the malware attack , but the hospital maintains a written record of all its data , he said . Cyber experts were trying to get the system back on track , the DCP said . A case under section 43 ( hacking ) of the Information Technology Act has been registered with the Vashi Police Station . Among the recent cyber attacks of this kind , the ` WannaCry ransomware attackAttack.Ransom' of May 2017 infected more than 2,30,000 computers across 150 countries .
SEATTLE — When malicious software first became a serious problem on the internet about 15 years ago , most people agreed that the biggest villain , after the authors of the damaging code , was Microsoft . As a new cyberattack continues to sweep across the globe , the company is once again at the center of the debate over who is to blame for a vicious strain of malware demanding ransomAttack.Ransomfrom victims in exchange for the unlocking of their digital files . This time , though , Microsoft believes others should share responsibility for the attack , an assault that targeted flaws in the Windows operating system . On Sunday , Brad Smith , Microsoft ’ s president and chief legal officer , wrote a blog post describing the company ’ s efforts to stop the ransomware ’ s spread , including an unusual step it took to releaseVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilitya security update for versions of Windows that Microsoft no longer supports . Mr. Smith wrote , “ As a technology company , we at Microsoft have the first responsibility to addressVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilitythese issues. ” He went on , though , to emphasize that the attack had demonstrated the “ degree to which cybersecurity has become a shared responsibility between tech companies and customers , ” the latter of whom must update their systems if they want to be protected . He also pointed his finger at intelligence services , since the latest vulnerability appeared to have been leaked from the National Security Agency . On Monday , a Microsoft spokesman declined to comment beyond Mr. Smith ’ s post . Microsoft has recognized the risk that cybersecurity poses to it since about 2002 , when Bill Gates , the former chief executive , issued a call to arms inside the company after a wave of malicious software began infecting Windows PCs connected to the internet . “ As software has become ever more complex , interdependent and interconnected , our reputation as a company has in turn become more vulnerable , ” Mr. Gates wrote in an email to employees identifying trustworthy computing as Microsoft ’ s top priority . “ Flaws in a single Microsoft product , service or policy not only affectVulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerabilitythe quality of our platform and services overall , but also our customers ’ view of us as a company. ” Since then , the company has poured billions of dollars into security initiatives , employing more than 3,500 engineers dedicated to security . In March , it releasedVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilitya software patch that addressedVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilitythe vulnerability exploited by the ransomware , known as WannaCry , protecting systems such as Windows 10 , its latest operating system . Yet security flaws in older editions of Windows persist . The company no longer providesVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilityregular software updates to Windows XP , a version first released in 2001 , unless customers pay for “ custom support , ” a practice some observers believe has put users at risk . Late Friday , Microsoft took the unusual step of making patchesVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilitythat protect older systems against WannaCry , including Windows XP , free . “ Companies like Microsoft should discard the idea that they can abandon people using older software , ” Zeynep Tufekci , an associate professor at the school of information and library science at the University of North Carolina , wrote in a New York Times opinion piece over the weekend . “ The money they made from these customers hasn ’ t expired ; neither has their responsibility to fix defects. ” But security experts challenged that argument , saying that Microsoft could not be expected to keep updating old software products indefinitely . ProvidingVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilityupdates to older systems could make computers more insecure by removing an incentive for users to modernize , Mikko Hypponen , the chief research officer of F-Secure , a security firm . “ I can understand why they issuedVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilityan emergency patch for XP after WannaCry was found , but in general , we should just let XP die , ” Mr. Hypponen said .