Another Victim of Cyber Risk: Ottawa Hospital weathers ransomware threat

Ottawa Hospital executives claim the agency has weathered a ransomware attack that it was capable to control with backup files.

The Canadian hospital released a statement previous week that 4 of the hospital’s 9,800 computers were impacted by an attack by hackers, who thought to lock the files on the computers and extract payment.

The facility stated that it was capable to isolate the computers and wipe the drives of data. Patient data was not affected by the attack or remedy, it stated. The facility claimed that it considers its present safeguards to this and upcoming attacks will be effective.

The ransomware attack against the Ottawa Hospital is the new in a sequence of high-profile attacks against healthcare agencies by hackers who utilize malware or phishing attacks to acquire approach to hospital computers to encrypt the information and then demand a ransom to decrypt it.

In the month of February, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in the state of Los Angeles was victimized by a ransomware attack that impacted its capability to approach patient data. The facility had to revert to utilizing paper records, then instantly paid a $17,000 ransom in Bitcoin to regain control of its networks.

At Hollywood Presbyterian, the ransomware attack began on the day of February 5, crippling approach to EHRs and disturbing the flow of clinical data.

The facility paid the ransom to gain obtain a decryption key and put its data systems back online, claimed Allen Stefanek, its CEO. Approach to information in the electronic record was restored on the day of February 15, he stated.

The latest ransomware threat on healthcare is worrisome because hospitals are not made to fight cyber threats, claims Rahul Kashyap, chief security architect at Bromium, which monitors treat data and observes threats. “Information Technology security in hospitals is not established to ward off these risks—hospital attacks will increase.”