Connor Jones reports:
Ransomware gang LockBit is claiming responsibility for an attack on a Chicago children’s hospital in an apparent deviation from its previous policy of not targeting nonprofits.
Stooping to new lows, the criminals are reportedly unwilling to reverse the attack on Saint Anthony Hospital, as they had done in previous cases such as Toronto’s SickKids hospital.
What’s more, it apparently thinks a nonprofit hospital has the funds to pay a $800,000 ransom. Saint Anthony Hospital has not explicitly stated whether it will or won’t pay, but with a sum this large it’s highly unlikely that it would ever consider paying, let alone have the funds available to do so.
The deadline for payment has been set at 01:41 UTC on February 2. A $1,000 payment would extend the timer for 24 hours, and $800,000 is the price assigned to the data – that goes for both the destruction of it or the purchase of it by other parties.
Saint Anthony Hospital confirmed the attack via a statement published this week, saying files containing patient information had been copied by an unknown attacker. The hospital didn’t specify the nature of the stolen data but confirmed no medical or financial records were accessed.
St Anthony Hospital’s statement can be found on their site.