Ransomware is one of the more insidious types of malware making
the rounds as well as the news. It is a piece of software that
encrypts your data and holds it at ransom. Until very recently,
this has been an attack that strikes individuals. Once a ransom has
been paid, the perpetrator would then provide the victim with the
key to decrypt their data.
However, on or about February 5, a hospital in California fell
victim to ransomware which effectively shut down the hospital's
IT systems. The Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center was reported
to have had their systems compromised by the malware attack, and
some media sources have set the purported ransom demands to be as
high as US $3.6 million. After repeated attempts to restore their
systems and data, it was reported on February 18 that the hospital
paid a ransom to the perpetrator(s) of 40 bitcoins, the untraceable
cryptocurrency, that was worth approximately US $17,000 at the
time. While that is
