Ransomware attack on fetal diagnostic lab breaches 40,800 patient records

siteadmin September 13, 2018

The Fetal Diagnostic Institute of the Pacific experienced a ransomware attack that potentially exposed the data of 40,800 patients. The institute was able to contain the incident, remove the virus, and restore the impacted data through backups. The attackers used a variant of the SamSam ransomware called Ryuk, which has caused an estimated $640,000 in damage. Education and preventative measures are important in preventing ransomware attacks. It is advised not to pay hackers the ransom and to restore data through offline backups.