Hospital pays ransom, gets IT systems back

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center paid $17,000 in ransom to get its information systems back online.


Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center has paid the Bitcoin equivalent of $17,000 in ransom to obtain a decryption key and put its information systems back online, CEO Allen Stefanek announced late Wednesday.

In a statement, Stefanek said medial reports of a ransom demand for more than $3 million were false and there was no evidence yet that hospital data was accessed. The ransomware attack started on February 5, the electronic medical record was restored on February 15, and other information systems are being brought back online, he said in describing the timeline of events.

“The quickest and most efficient way to restore our systems and administrative functions was to pay the ransom and obtain the decryption key,” Stefanek said in the statement. “In the best interest of restoring normal operations, we did this.”

The full statement from the hospital is available here.

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