LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-hollywood-hospital-bitcoin-20160217-story.html
Hospital press release:
http://hollywoodpresbyterian.com/default/assets/File/20160217%20Memo%20from%20the%20CEO%20v2.pdf
I feel for these guys. Ransomware is some volatile stuff.
This so-called person doing cyber blackmail is somewhere, and of he is caught, I propose a solution. Have a pay per view of his slow execution. The proceeds used to reimburse the people scammed.
They need to turn off Java on all of their systems to keep ransomware from locking their system. If a machine absolutely needs to run Java, it needs to be runnng the latest version and it must be isolated from the rest of the hospital network. A system locked by ransomware can be recovered manually, but it is a tedious process.
How is bitcoin supposedly almost untraceable?, my understanding is that all bitcoin transactions receive a unique transaction identification code, and are tracked,similar to how wire transfers occur from one bank account to.another.
This is not to say that recovery of the bitcoin ransom is easy to accomplish, if the attackers are in another country or cash out their bitcoin holdings. Just saying that I don’t understand how we are told that bitcoin is untraceable.