Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center Hit By Bitcoin Ransomware

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center has been completely locked out of its IT infrastructure due to a Ransomware infection. The hospital’s computers have been down since Friday, when hospital staff sounded the alarm.

According to a report by NBC Los Angeles, an unidentified doctor at Hollywood Presbyterian said that the hospital’s IT systems were infected by Ransomware that requires payment in Bitcoin.

This claim was corroborated by another article from CSO, which stated that the ransom amount requested was approximately 9,000 BTC.

“The type of Ransomware responsible for shutting down the hospital remains unknown, but one local computer consultant said the ransom being demanded was about 9,000 BTC, or just over $3.6 million dollars.”

Allen Stefanek, President of HPMC, said that some patients had to be driven to other hospitals, and that that some of the hospital’s emergency room facilities have been impacted. Staff at HPMC have been forced to rely on fax machines, telephones and paper. The outage has also rendered X-Ray and CT scan machines unusable, as these devices can only be operated via computers.

HPMC officials are currently cooperating with the LAPD, and digital forensic experts from the FBI have been called in to assist.

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