Free Republic

Princeton Community Hospital in rural West Virginia will scrap and replace its entire computer network after being struck by the cyberattack paralyzing computers globally. The cyberattack, known as Petya, froze the hospital's electronic medical record system early Tuesday, leaving doctors unable to review patients' medical history or transmit laboratory and pharmacy orders, said Rose Morgan, the hospital's vice president of patient care services. Officials were unable to restore services, and found there was no way to pay a ransom for the return of their system. So, after consulting with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and cybersecurity experts, officials made the...

Tuesday’s massive ransomware outbreak was, in fact, something much worse Payload delivered in mass attack destroys data, with no hope of recovery. DAN GOODIN - 6/29/2017, 5:30 AM Tuesday's massive outbreak of malware that shut down computers around the world has been almost universally blamed on ransomware, which by definition seeks to make money by unlocking data held hostage only if victims pay a hefty fee. Now, some researchers are drawing an even bleaker assessment—that the malware was a wiper with the objective of permanently destroying data. Initially, researchers said the malware was a new version of the Petya ransomware...