ransomware attack Archives

Darkside of a Ransomware Attack: Its Aftermath It has been over five months since a ransomware attack hit eHealth Saskatchewan. Since then, officials at eHealth Saskatchewan said they still don't know what data was stolen, where it was taken, who stole it, and it will take months to restructure their IT infrastructure. The Ransomware Attack In January this year, eHealth Saskatchewan announced that it fell victim to a ransomware attack. eHealth Saskatchewan maintains the key electronic health information systems of the Canadian Province of Saskatchewan, including the Electronic Health Record (EHR). In a ransomware attack, computer files are encrypted denying legitimate users access to these files. In this type of attack, a ransom note is shown on the affected computers, demanding from victims to pay ransom in exchange for decryption…

Dutch University Paid Cybercriminals Ransom; Lessons Learned from This Attack Maastricht University, a government-funded institution in the Netherlands, recently admitted that it paid ransomware attacker a ransom of 30 Bitcoin, valued nearly 220,000 USD at the time of payment. The University, in a statement, said it fell victim to a ransomware attack on December 23, 2019. While the University’s IT infrastructure consists of 1,647 Linux and Windows servers and 7,307 workstations, the University said, the attacker only hit 267 Windows servers. The University added that backups of these servers were also affected. In ransomware attacks, attackers prevent legitimate users from accessing their computers or files through the process known as encryption. Attackers then demand from their victims ransom in exchange for the decryption keys that would unlock the encrypted files.…