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Ransomware Is Out of Control, Hits Hospitals, Churches, Schools, Courthouses
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More and more users fall victims to ransomware


During the past month, ransomware infections have gotten out of control and have infected not only home users, but many high-profile targets like courthouses, hospitals, schools, and even churches.
 
After earlier this month, the ransomware infection that paralyzed the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles made headlines around the world, it appears that many more other public institutions have realized there's no shame in admitting that they've faced a ransomware infection as well.
 
During the past week, we've seen many public institutions acknowledging similar incidents, something that a couple of years back would never reach the ears of the press.
 
This may also have something to do with the fact that ransomware infections, as a whole, grew tremendously, and it's now a common occurrence to see even the newest ransomware families possess high-end encryption capabilities.
 
Ransomware affects public institutions as well, not just regular folks
 
Probably the most unusual place to find a ransomware infection is a courthouse. Something like this happened at the Arizona Superior Court in Pima County, but sysadmins said that no files containing court information got encrypted during the incident.
 
Infections were also spotted at two German hospitals, more precisely at the Lukas Hospital in the city of Neuss and the Klinikum Arnsberg hospital in North Rhine-Westphalia. Just like with the LA clinic incident, these infections sent hospitals back a few years, with doctors and nurses having to use pen and paper to manage patients. Also, let's not forget about the ransomware infection that took root at the Whanganui District Health Board in New Zealand.

Ransomware also hit two US churches. The first was the Community of Christ Church in Hillsboro, Oregon, and the second was St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Sioux City, Iowa, both hit on the same day. Of the two, the church in Oregon ended up paying the ransom.
 
And let's not forget to mention the two instances when ransomware affected public schools. The first ransomware case infected the computers at a local school in Oxford, Mississippi, and then there was even an LA hospital incident.
 
We reported on the second event earlier this week when ransomware locked a few servers belonging to the Horry County school district in South Carolina. After suffering some downtime, school administrators agreed to make an $8,500 / €7,600 payment to unlock their files and get rid of the ransomware.

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