An Infrastructure News article.
The DHB has called in external help and says it refuses to pay any ransom demanded while clinical services are left scrambling.
Hackers of Waikato District Health Board (DHB) are believed to have gained access to their systems via an email attachment opened by a staff member. They have caused disruption to all clinical services in a bid to extort a ransom payment.
This follows a similar attack on the Irish health system in the form of ransomware, just a few days ago. AUT Computer Science Professor Dave Parry explains that in this sort of attack, the attacker manages to get some of their software onto the victim’s network and this encrypts files, making them unreadable. The attacker then offers to give the victim the key to unlock the encryption in return for money – usually in the form of bitcoin or other cryptocurrency.
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