‘Never pay the ransom’: Melbourne hospital pays attackers after thousands of medical files hacked

A cardiology unit at Cabrini Hospital has made a payment to hackers after malware crippled its server and corrupted its data.

As reported in The Age this morning, a cybercrime syndicate has hacked and scrambled the medical files of about 15,000 patients and demanded a ransom.

Matthew Warren, deputy director of Deakin University’s Centre for Cyber Security Research, told Ross and John companies should never pay ransoms.

“A lot of these attacks exploit weaknesses in the system,” Matthew said.

“You can hide where you’re attacking from, you could think they’re from America when they’re actually from China.

“I’m sure we’ll find out in due course, once the investigation has been completed if its possible to identify the country behind the attack.

“As soon as you pay a ransom you show the attacker that you’re willing to pay.

“So they’ll just come back and ask for more and more payments.”

Click PLAY below to hear the details