Health Care and Ransomware: A Marriage Made in Hades

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The WannaCry ransomware attack that struck on May 12 and quickly spread around the world was anything but routine. Heretofore, most ransomware attacks were initiated after a successful phishing effort; that wasn’t the case with WannaCry. Ransomware attacks are generally confined and targeted; this one, to date, has hit more than 100,000 organizations in over 150 countries.

With that kind of impact, you’d think the attackers made off with quite a haul. Not quite — IBM X-Force research has been tracking bitcoin wallet payments associated with WannaCry, and as of May 18, the fraudsters have accumulated less than $70,000 in bitcoins.

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