Ransomware hackers fleeced $1.14 million out of top medical school

Ransomware hackers fleeced $ane.14 1000000 out of height medical schoolhouse

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A leading U.S. medical school and research university has been forced to pay $1.14 million to cybercrooks afterwards falling victim to a ransomware assail.

The Netwalker ransomware assault on June i targeted the University of California, San Francisco, and resulted in servers at the UCSF School of Medicine being encrypted past hackers.

Although the university'due south IT department identified and mitigated the attack, it was unable to stop the hackers encrypting a number of files. The school therefore paid the ransom fee to decrypt the files.

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In a post on the academy's website (and reported past the BBC) on June 26, UCSF administrators wrote: "While we stopped the attack as it was occurring, the actors launched malware that encrypted a limited number of servers within the Schoolhouse of Medicine, making them temporarily inaccessible.

"Since that time, nosotros have been working with a leading cybersecurity consultant and other exterior experts to investigate the incident and reinforce our It systems' defenses. We await to fully restore the affected servers soon."

UCSF has split up medical, dental, nursing and pharmacy schools, equally well as research facilities and a education hospital, all in San Francisco. It is the wellness-sciences branch of the University of California system and does non teach undergraduates.

'Opportunistic' attack

The graduate establishment said the encrypted data was "important to some of the academic piece of work we pursue as a university serving the public skilful", and as a issue, the school felt information technology had no selection just to pay the sum.

The schoolhouse'south posting went on to say that it "made the hard determination to pay some portion of the ransom, approximately $1.14 million, to the individuals behind the malware attack in exchange for a tool to unlock the encrypted information and the return of the data they obtained."

While the investigation is however underway, UCSF said that the "malware encrypted our servers opportunistically" and that "no item area" was a target for the ransomware assail.

The university added: "The attackers obtained some data as proof of their action, to utilize in their demand for a ransom payment. We are standing our investigation, but nosotros do not currently believe patient medical records were exposed.

"We proceed to cooperate with law enforcement, and we capeesh everyone'southward understanding that nosotros are limited in what we can share while nosotros keep with our investigation."

The BBC was privy to the academy's online negotiations with the criminals, who demanded $3 million at one signal because the Academy of California "made billions a year."

In fact, the unabridged University of California system is non-profit and is partly funded by country taxpayers. The two sides eventually settled for $1.14 million, paid in bitcoin.

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Nicholas Fearn is a freelance engineering journalist and copywriter from the Welsh valleys. His work has appeared in publications such as the FT, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, The Next Spider web, T3, Android Key, Computer Weekly, and many others. He also happens to exist a diehard Mariah Carey fan!