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Hospital Pays $55K Ransom Despite Having Backups

Posted: January 16, 2018 to Cybersecurity.

Tags: Ransomware, Malware, Data Breach

By now you probably know the drill when it comes to ransomware. Don't open suspicious email attachments and if you do happen to get infected, make sure you have a backup you can restore from. The recent ransomware attack on Hancock Health in Greenfield, Indiana, didn't go that way. First of all, the infection didn't come from an infected file. Instead, the hacker(s) used SamSam, which searches the Internet for Remote Desktop Protocol connections then brute force attacks the system until they're in and have spread through the network a good bit. Once they're happy with how saturated they are, the ransomware deploys. Hancock Health was quick to shut down computers and put warnings up all over the place instructing employees not to turn on their computers until they were cleared to do so. Hospital operations continued as best they could using ancient technologies such as pen and paper. The hospital did have backups to restore from, but they figured it would have taken days or weeks to properly restore everything from their backups, so they opted, for the sake of expediency, to pay 4 Bitcoins, which was around $55,000 at the time. (Too bad they didn't wait until today- it would have saved them about $12,000.) The SamSam ransomware did show some remorse over the situation. All of the encrypted files were renamed to "I'm sorry."

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About the Author

Craig Petronella, CEO and Founder of Petronella Technology Group
CEO, Founder & AI Architect, Petronella Technology Group

Craig Petronella founded Petronella Technology Group in 2002 and has spent more than 30 years working at the intersection of cybersecurity, AI, compliance, and digital forensics. He holds the CMMC Registered Practitioner credential (RP-1372) issued by the Cyber AB, is an NC Licensed Digital Forensics Examiner (License #604180-DFE), and completed MIT Professional Education programs in AI, Blockchain, and Cybersecurity. Craig also holds CompTIA Security+, CCNA, and Hyperledger certifications.

He is an Amazon #1 Best-Selling Author of 15+ books on cybersecurity and compliance, host of the Encrypted Ambition podcast (95+ episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon), and a cybersecurity keynote speaker with 200+ engagements at conferences, law firms, and corporate boardrooms. Craig serves as Contributing Editor for Cybersecurity at NC Triangle Attorney at Law Magazine and is a guest lecturer at NCCU School of Law. He has served as a digital forensics expert witness in federal and state court cases involving cybercrime, cryptocurrency fraud, SIM-swap attacks, and data breaches.

Under his leadership, Petronella Technology Group has served 2,500+ clients, maintained a zero-breach record among compliant clients, earned a BBB A+ rating every year since 2003, and been featured as a cybersecurity authority on CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, and WRAL. The company leverages SOC 2 Type II certified platforms and specializes in AI implementation, managed cybersecurity, CMMC/HIPAA/SOC 2 compliance, and digital forensics for businesses across the United States.

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