Hancock Regional Hospital located in Hancock County, Indiana has become the latest victim of SamSam Ransomware attack. The healthcare services provider announced on Sunday that a group of hackers has shut down their computer network by encrypting the database and are demanding a sum of $55,000 worth of cryptocurrency to decrypt the database.
As of now, the hospital authorities are sure that no patient record was compromised from the ransomware attack incident.
Meanwhile, the IT staff of the Hancock Memorial Hospital is working on ways to recover the data from the encrypted database. The management is said to have decided to pay $55,000 worth of 4 bitcoins to the SamSam Ransomware spreaders despite having backups.
Authorities say that backup restoration may take days or weeks for operations to proceed normally and so the IT staff of the healthcare provider are willing to pay the demanded ransom.
Usually, in ransomware cyber attacks, the malware spreaders or hackers do not offer a guaranty to pass-on a decryption key in exchange for the demanded ransom. But, the authorities of the Indiana based Hancock Hospital are sure that the hackers will turn up after they receive the demanded ransom in Bitcoins Currency.
Cybersecurity Insiders learned that the ransomware attack took place on the servers of the Indiana based hospital on the evening of Thursday last week. It’s said that the hackers were able to infect the Hancock Hospital’s internal operating systems, email systems, and electronic health records.
The incident has been reported to FBI by the said healthcare hospital authorities on Saturday and an investigation is said to be going on in full swing on this issue.
Fortunately, the regular operations of the hospital including the emergency services are functioning normally despite the ransomware cyber attack.
Note- Hancock Memorial Hospital is one of the top healthcare services providers in the United States. It is based in Greenfield, Indiana and offers to the entire populace of Indiana healing, improving health and wellness related services through its network of hospitals based in 11 locations across Indiana.
