The United Kingdom’s Northern Lincolnshire and Goole hospital, has recently recovered from a horrible act of cybercrime. Tolerating and sometimes applauding the “Hackgroups-R-Us” who tear down servers of government officials is one thing, but throwing a virus towards a hospital is something completely different. The results of this virus caused the hospital to divert major time-critical trauma patients towards those neighboring facilities, risking their lives.
Oddly enough, this cyber virus had appeared while UK leaders were detailing their national cyber security strategy. Their strategy, to further cyber security research, was set to cost the nation several billion dollars. The new and special “police units” would track down and bring proper charges to online gangs, as the level of online danger is becoming alarmingly real.
Northern Lincolnshire and Goole placed a banner on their website informing their patients of the lurking threat within their computer systems. On the brighter side, this threat is now, for the most past, eradicated. Now they have a banner informing the public that “The majority of our electronic systems are now back up and are working.”
The hospital’s computer crisis caused the staff to cancel all surgeries, as well as divert their trauma patients.
“We have taken the decision, following expert advise, to shutdown the majority of our systems so we can isolate and destroy it.” states the NHS of their recent malware infection, and continued by saying “All planned operations, outpatient appointments and diagnostic procedures have been cancelled for Wednesday (November 2, 2016).”
Continuing, NHS stated “Inpatients will continue to be cared for and discharged as soon as they are medically fit. Major trauma cases will continue to be diverted to neighboring hospitals as will high risk women in labor.”
While the hospital has not released any information pertaining to the type of malware infecting their computer systems, security experts believe that this most likely was a ransomware attack.
For those who are unaware of what a ransomware is, this is a type of malware that seeks out documents, audio files, pictures, and other valuable information. Once it has the information located, it will then “lock-down” those files with an encryption key. As a result, those who normally have access to the server (website, back-end files, etc.) will not be able to view any critical information, other than a message. A typical ransomware message after encryption usually demands an access code:
“Your files are encrypted. Enter the decryption code below”
|Decryption Code Here!|
“Please purchase your decryption code from here”
And usually, options are given to pay for the code via PayPal or Bitcoin. Once the ransom fee is paid, a decryption code is normally sent, and you get your files back.
Earlier this year, security experts witnessed several hospitals and other health organizations fall victim to ransomware viruses. For the majority of these organizations, those who fell victim to ransomware were heavily dependent on instant access of their patient/client information. In one similar incident in the United States, an Los Angeles Hospital paid hackers almost $17,000 to fully restore their computers and retrieve private documents.
Sources: Northern Lincolnshire and Goole, NPR (LA Hospital Paid $17,000 to Hackers).
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