Today, I learned that:

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA

The more we connect ourselves and our systems to the internet, the bigger is the risk that we may suffer from malicious attacks. A recent case started on February 5, when the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center had their computers hacked by outsiders who implanted a virus that encrypted the files stored in their computer system.

The problem for the victims of the hack is that they often lose all access to their computer networks. In this case, some industrial nurses had to use fax machines and record patient notes with pen and paper. The police normally advise the victims to resist from paying a ransom, which in turn would result that they could de-encrypt the files, out of fear that such an action could encourage future hackers.

However, there are reports that at least on two times, small Massachusetts police departments have paid off “ransomware hackers” after they lost access to their files. And in this Hollywood hospital case, the same thing happened here. After almost two weeks of resisting to pay, on February 17 the hospital ended up paying US$ 17 000, received the de-encryption password and could go back to business as usual. For a big hospital like this one, that sum must be considered insignificant in relation to their turnover, so they got away cheaply. But the hackers could very well have demanded a much higher amount. The whole story is covered in reference #1 below.

Today, I would also like to show you how easy it is to break into someone’s accounts and ruin that person’s life. Read the story and watch the movie of reference #2 below, and after that be very cautious about any unusual event.

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… That’s what I learned in school ! … Por hoje é só !

Refs.:

1: Los Angeles hospital paid $17,000 in bitcoin to ransomware hackers

2: I dared two expert hackers to destroy my life. Here’s what happened.

+: What did you learn in school today ?