The Ottawa Hospital has become the latest victim of a ransomware attack, according to The Ottawa Citizen.
The Canadian hospital reported that malware encrypted four computers in its network of 9,800, making information on them inaccessible. No patient information was compromised, according to the hospital. The infected machines were wiped clean and the data restored through backups.
Security researcher Trustwave has found as many as 4 million spam emails containing a new version of ransomware, named "Locky," in the past week, according to the story.
The discovery last week of ransomware affecting Apple computers widens the potential for attacks, though that variant, known as "KeRanger" operates through the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file-sharing network, Reuters reports.
In February, a ransomware attack left Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center staff working with paper and fax machines for more than a week before it eventually paid about $17,000 to hackers to release its data.
The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services was attacked just days later. Mount Pleasant Texas-based Titus Regional Medical Center's electronic health record system was left inaccessible by such an attack in January.
The malicious software usually enters the network from spam email, which can look official. A hacker impersonating the company's CEO recently used his email address to gain access to employees' personal information at Tulare, California-based Magnolia Health Corp.
Attorney Mary Ellen Callahan advises healthcare organizations to reiterate to employees that they should be leery of opening email attachments and to ensure that workers know what to do if they believe they have opened a malicious attachment.
To learn more:
- find the article
- read the Reuters story