That has made them a reliable victim of ransomware attacks, such as that on Friday in which hackers encrypted data on infected computers and demanded $300 in bitcoin to unlock it. Hospitals are also fertile ground for identity thieves because of their often-lax security policies. Some security expects calculate that ransomware may bring in as much as $1 billion a year in revenue for the attackers. More than 75,000 computers in 99 countries were compromised in Friday’s attack, with a heavy concentration of infections in Russia and Ukraine, according to Dutch security company Avast Software BV. The ministry said technicians had stopped the attack and were updating the department’s “antivirus defense systems,” according to the Times.

Source: Mint May 13, 2017 14:15 UTC