California hospital pays hackers $17,000 to unlock EHR

Editor's Note

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center paid hackers who infiltrated and disabled their electronic health record (EHR) a $17,000 ransom to unlock their system, the February 18 Modern Healthcare reports.

Administrators at the Los Angeles hospital said they paid the ransom because it was the quickest and most efficient way to restore their system.

The FBI is investigating the attack, often referred to as “ransomware.” In these attacks, hackers encrypt a computer’s data and “hold it hostage” until the owner pays a price to get a decryption key to unlock the computer.

A Southern California hospital's computers have been restored after it paid a $17,000 ransom in bitcoins to hackers who infiltrated and disabled its network. The gambit isn't new, but it appears to be on the rise.