FBI Probing Virus Behind Outage at MedStar Health Facilities

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Hackers crippled computer systems Monday at a major hospital chain, MedStar Health Inc., forcing records systems offline for thousands of patients and doctors. The FBI said it was investigating whether the unknown hackers demanded a ransom to restore systems.

A computer virus paralyzed some operations at Washington-area hospitals and doctors' offices, leaving patients unable to book appointments and staff locked out of their email accounts. Some employees were required to turn off all computers since Monday morning.

A law enforcement official said the FBI was assessing whether the virus was so-called ransomware, in which hackers extort money in exchange for returning a victim's systems to normal. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss publicly details about the ongoing criminal investigation.

"We can't do anything at all. There's only one system we use, and now it's just paper," said one MedStar employee who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to speak to reporters.

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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/fbi-probing-virus-outage-medstar-health-facilities-37983800

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By JACK GILLUM, DAVID DISHNEAU AND TAMI ABDOLLAH, ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Mar 28, 2016, 5:08 PM ET

[yourout]

1. Recently had to clean up a pc after a Locky ransom ware infection..

Make sure you keep things backed up.This

[LiberalArkie]

2. The wonderful nature of the worm/virus/trojan that is hitting places is that

it sits there encrypting the data that is being backed up, it does that for months. So when they lock it down and request the ransom, there isn't a backup they can use that will work.

[phazed0]

3. FBI? They can't even crack an iPhone. nt

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

4. I thought they did - didn't they?

On edit - no they didn't - it was the Israelis.