Ransomware Gaining Traction
The rate of ransomware has significantly increased for every industry examined over the last 12 months. Cyber criminals are making a lucrative business through ransomware attacks. Hospitals, in particular, may pay a ransom because their patient data is critical in life-or-death situations. This was the case with Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center earlier this year, which chose to pay a $17,000 ransom to hackers who had locked some of the hospital's critical data. MedStar Health, another medical center, reported earlier this year that malware had caused a shutdown of some systems at its hospitals in Baltimore. Methodist Hospital in Henderson, Kentucky even declared an internal state of emergency after its systems were attacked by a strain of ransomware known as Locky.