The malware ransom attack on Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center — which prompted the facility to pay a $17,000 ransom in bitcoin to the hacker who seized control of the hospital's computer systems — is part of a larger problem that is generating outrage.The hospital attack has prompted a California state senator to propose making it an extortion crime for a hacker to infect a computer system with so-called ransomware.Last year, a small police department outside Boston paid a $500 ransom after an attack by hackers.A similar payment was made by a sheriff's department in Maine.The cyberattack is made when a malware program engages as soon as a victim clicks on a compromised website.The virus then locks the victim’s computer.In warning about the problem several years ago, local law enforcement said computers often display a fake message purporting to be from the FBI or Department of Justice, claiming that the user’s Internet address has been associated with child pornography sites or other illegal activity.The malware program tells users they can unlock their computers by making a payment through a money card service.The assault on Hollywood Presbyterian occurred Feb.

5 when hackers using malware infected the institution's computers, preventing hospital staff from being able to communicate from those devices, Chief Executive Allen Stefanek.www bitcoin italia orgThe hacker demanded 40 bitcoin, the equivalent of about $17,000, he said.bitcoin faucet direct paymentSee more of our top stories on Facebook >>“The malware locks systems by encrypting files and demanding ransom to obtain the decryption key.ethereum price gbpThe quickest and most efficient way to restore our systems and administrative functions was to pay the ransom and obtain the decryption key,” Stefanek said.bitcoin pools graph“In the best interest of restoring normal operations, we did this.”The hospital said it alerted authorities and was able to regain control of all of its computer systems by Monday, with the assistance of technology experts.Stefanek said patient care was never compromised, nor were hospital records.Sen.bitcoin asic for ethereum

Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) introduced legislation this week that would stiffen penalties against hackers, with those convicted of ransomware schemes receiving up to four years in prison.bitcoin mining lion“Nearly every day we read in the news about data breaches and online criminal activity,” Hertzberg said in a statement.bitcoin otc“We must be clear that we will not tolerate this kind of conduct, and that using modern tactics to engage in age-old thuggery of ransom and extortion do not change the seriousness of the crime.”Top hospital officials called the Los Angeles Police Department last week, according to police Lt.bitcoin upload walletJohn Jenal.Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman, said the bureau has taken over the hacking investigation but declined to discuss specifics of the case.buy bitcoins rbc

Law enforcement sources told The Times that the hospital paid the ransom before reaching out to law enforcement for assistance.Phil Lieberman, a cybersecurity expert, said that while ransomware attacks are common, targeting a medical institution is not.“I have never heard of this kind of attack trying to shut down a hospital.This puts lives at risk, and it is sickening to see such an act,” he said.“Health management systems are beginning to tighten their security.”The attack forced the hospital to return to pen and paper for its record-keeping for a time.The 434-bed short-term acute care hospital on Vermont Avenue is owned by CHC of South Korea.For SoCal crime & investigations follow me on Twitter @lacrimesApple CEO says helping FBI hack into terrorist's iPhone would be 'too dangerous'The futile fight to save Autumn, a 1-year-old victim of gang violence in ComptonSentenced to prison for assault, teenage 'parachute kids' deliver warning to adults in ChinaIn the old days, criminals liked their ransom payments in briefcases full of unmarked bills.These days, there’s a new preferred method for hostage takers: the virtual currency Bitcoin.In a modern day version of a mob shakedown, hackers around the world have seized files on millions of computers, taken down public websites and even, in a few cases, threatened physical harm.

The victims — who have ranged from ordinary computer users to financial firms and police departments — are told that their only way out is through a Bitcoin payment that is sometimes more than $20,000.One set of attackers, believed to be based in Russia and Ukraine, collected about $16.5 million in Bitcoins in a little over a month, primarily from victims in the United States, according to the security firm Sophos.Criminals like the virtual currency because it can be held in a digital wallet that does not have to be registered with any government or financial authority — and because it can be easily exchanged for real money.At the moment, a single Bitcoin can be sold online or on the street for around $290.“The criminal underground very much likes Bitcoin,” said Curt Wilson, a senior threat intelligence analyst at Arbor Networks.“It’s enabled a greater sense of obfuscation.” Bitcoin, which was released by an anonymous creator in 2009, has recently been gaining mainstream appeal.

Start-ups in the industry have won investments from big names like Goldman Sachs and the New York Stock Exchange, which have praised the technology as a faster, more efficient way to complete financial transactions.But the proliferation of ransom demands has provided an unhappy reminder of the virtual currency’s continuing appeal to the criminal underworld, long after the authorities shut down the online drug bazaar, Silk Road, where heroin and cocaine were sold using Bitcoin.The latest reminder of Bitcoin’s underbelly came last week with the arrest of two Florida men.The authorities said victims of malware were steered to Coin.mx, a site run by the two men, to buy the Bitcoins to pay the ransom demanded by the malware.The complaint suggested that the criminals also used the site to launder their proceeds.In a separate set of recent cases, security experts said, several financial firms have been attacked by a criminal, or circle of criminals, going by the name DD4BC, who have threatened to overwhelm the firms’ public websites with message traffic unless a Bitcoin payment was made.

These corporate victims are generally asked to pay about $10,000, the security experts said, and the attacks have shown no signs of abating.“Do not ignore me, as it will just increase the price,” DD4BC said in one email that was made public.“Once you pay me you are free from me for the lifetime of your site.”Ted Weisberg, the president of the brokerage firm Seaport Securities, which was hit in June, said that he initially thought the message was a joke.But as he called competitors, he said, he quickly learned that the threat was real.Seaport’s website ended up being down for a day and a half.Weisberg’s firm did not pay the ransom and repelled the bombardment of traffic with the help of one of its technical providers.The extortion attempts have been widespread enough that the brokerage industry’s self-governing regulatory agency, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, warned its members in June to contact the F.B.I.if they received a message from DD4BC.Ransom payments entered the digital world long before Bitcoin came on the scene.

Previously, though, the methods for paying attackers could be cumbersome and risky for the extortionist.A credit card payment or bank transfer could easily be traced by the police, so the victims were usually asked to buy prepaid cards like Green Dot’s MoneyPak.Partly because of their use by swindlers, these cards were recently taken off the market.Bitcoin has made the delivery of ransom more seamless and untraceable for criminals because the virtual currency system is run by a decentralized network of computers that collects no personal information about users.Unlike the days of bulging briefcases, Bitcoin payments can be made without an in-person meeting.What’s more, Bitcoin transactions are designed to be irreversible, so victims cannot reclaim their money as they could with a credit card or PayPal transaction.Early Bitcoin users quickly realized that the currency could be useful for ransom payments.But in late 2013, the threat spread far beyond the virtual currency community when the first version of Bitcoin-fueled ransomware, known as CryptoLocker, began to spread around the globe.The software encrypted all of the files on a computer and offered a key to unlock the files in exchange for a Bitcoin payment.

Victims were directed to several websites where they could buy Bitcoins through a bank transfer.When an alliance of international authorities took down CryptoLocker in mid-2014 and identified the mastermind as a 30-year-old Russian named Evgeniy Bogachev, the group said that the software had spread to 234,000 computers.Since then, much more virulent strains have popped up, most of them under the name CryptoWall, and spread even more widely to the computers of anyone who opened infected attachments.The authorities have had trouble estimating the number of victims because many do not report their problem and quietly pay the price.But in late 2014, Dell SecureWorks said CryptoWall had infected over 800,000 computers.New versions of the malware, going by names like TorrentLocker and Dirty Decrypt, have popped up frequently since then.A police department in Durham, N.H., that was hit by CryptoWall in June 2014, refused to hand over the ransom and was able to revert to backup files.But more recently, police departments in Dickson County, Tenn., and Tewksbury, Mass., have said that they chose to pay the roughly $500 ransom rather than deal with the headache of trying to circumvent the hackers.Beyond these attacks, extortionists went after two longtime Bitcoin advocates last year, threatening to exploit personal information about the men’s families if they did not pay up.When one of the men, Hal Finney, refused to submit, the assailant called the local police and reported a murder at Mr.