Caro Medical Facilities Paralyzed by Ransomware
Three medical facilities, all tied to the Caro Community Hospital were infected with ransomware on July 5, 2017. According to WNEM, the Caro Community Hospital, Caro Medical Clinic and the Caro Quick Care were impacted by the ransomware that hit the Caro Community Hospital’s database. Once aware of the attack, the IT team sprung into action in an attempt to isolate the infection. Unfortunately, the malware corrupted the medical facility’s servers and computers. Since the hospital’s phones operate through the computers, they were down as well.
The hospital’s CEO, Marc Augsburger, stated the hospital staff practices the disaster recovery plan for instances such as this. Augsburger believes his staff was able to make a fairly seamless transition to using paper until the computers could be fixed, meaning patient care was not compromised. It has now been two weeks, and the medical facilities are still working to get everything fully functional.
The ransomware variant has not been identified, but it was reported as a “brand new strain” by IT departments, and the FBI. It also remains unclear if the hospital paid the $120,000 ransom demand to regain access to their systems.
Ausburger reported being aware of the cyber threat, ransomware, but never thought it would make its way to his town. Perhaps this is a good lesson — no one is immune from cyber attacks.
Ransomware Attacks
To see a full list of ransomware attacks that have taken place in 2017, you can click here. We have also created a ransomware map, see below, of the ransomware attacks that have taken place in the U.S.
