My son’s hospital main portal held hostage for ransomware since Jan 31 (allegedly, FBI is involved). No phones, email, test results, nothing. I’m communicating with doctors via cell phones. They had to reach out to me bc I couldn’t get through.
Is owning crypto like owning tobacco stocks? Is crypto the enabler of many more untold crimes? Sure smells like it. Also still extremely risky with no recourse if you get scammed. It will need so much regulation to be useful to people. Right now it’s just a gimmick for speculators and thieves. Not sure why I own some. If societies implode, is crypto (or gold) going to save the few that own it? And the rest?
Happened to my hospital twice. Like Marco describes water ran and toilets flushed. Lights on too I guess but cannot think of anything else that worked. That was it for 2 weeks the second time. No word on whether ransom was paid or not.
My hôpital had a data breach of patient records at the same time.
I’ve been trying to tell people this for years, but no one wants to listen. Society has laws on KYC, money laundering etc for extremely good reasons, people get hurt without them. I hope the situation with your hospital resolves quickly!
Dollars are used more extensively for Crime, Than BTC. BTC isnt even anonymous, you pay the fee, turn the hospital on and then access the blockchain and find the criminals. Probably the blame should be on the hospital for running archaic, dysfunctional operating systems, security systems and even having critical systems accessible by the internet. Really the only thing they should have plugged into the internet is accounting and reorder systems.
@prendergast they use Epic like most hospitals. A large 10K employee SaaS company.
If criminals chose dollars for their ransom then they need to provide a bank account # in a bank governed by international laws (even if the bank is in Russia). I’ve never heard of a ransom case where criminals used a bank account ! So obviously that doesn’t end well for criminals. Or they have to choose a time & place to deliver a suitcase full of cash. Also very risky.
With crypto it’s just a wallet address. I’ve also never heard of a large ring of criminals being nabbed that was using crypto. So obviously is not so easy to track them.
It is fairly easy to secure business systems and processes. But that would reduce the ease and profitability of running the business. So, ultimately the customers pay the horrible price. You should be suing the *** out of the hospital.