Anyone who follows security and cybercrime has likely noticed the wave of ransomware attacks targeting business in 2016. Just last Wednesday the news broke that three hospitals had been hit with ransomware attacks in the course of a week, one of which was impacted so significantly that it had to declare a "state of internal emergency" while systems were being restored. Before that, 2016 saw a successful ransomware infection fetch a $17,000 bitcoin ransom from Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center as well as ransomware attacks against two German hospitals. While the latter were successfully mitigated without paying ransoms (thanks to vigilant IT departments and automatic data backups), those two attacks still left the German hospitals without critical systems temporarily. In one of those incidents the hospital estimated that it would rely on phones, faxes, and paper records for weeks while its IT department worked to restore systems. In some rare but serious cases, even critical surgical procedures were delayed due to the attack.

Recently our global security advocate Thomas Fischer sat down with Paul Roberts for a Security Ledger podcast on the recent wave of ransomware attacks targeting businesses. Listen to their 20 minute discussion below for more on the latest ransomware attacks, tips for protecting against ransomware, and Thomas’ opinion on the notorious “to pay or not to pay” dilemma that typically follows ransomware infections.

For more, check out the full article on The Security Ledger.