
What EMR System Was Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center Using During $17,000 Bitcoin Ransom Hack?
February 18, 2016
A lot more questions than answers from Allen Stefanek, President & CEO Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center regarding their hack on February 5th that was resolved on February 15 after a $17,000 Bitcoin ransom was paid. Since the EMR (electronic medical records) were part of the hack, is this the back door the hackers used, meaning, have other hospital vendors, with the same EMR system, also been contacted for the ransom of their medical records? Interesting, Stefanek, doesn’t mention the EMR vendor by name. Below the letter to the media.
I am writing to talk to you about the recent cyber incident which temporarily affected the operation of our enterprise-wide hospital information system. It is important to note that this incident did not affect the delivery and quality of the excellent patient care you expect and receive from Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center (“HPMC”). Patient care has not been compromised in any way. Further, we have no evidence at this time that any patient or employee information was subject to unauthorized access. On the evening of February 5th, our staff noticed issues accessing the hospital’s computer network. Our IT department began an immediate investigation and determined we had been subject to a malware attack. The malware locked access to certain computer systems and prevented us from sharing communications electronically. Law enforcement was immediately notified. Computer experts immediately began assisting us in determining the outside source of the issue and bringing our systems back online.
![Message employees received on their work computers. Medtech[y]](https://www.killingmycareer.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/HPMC-hacked.-message-employees-received-jpg.png)
Message employees received on their work computers. Medtech[y]
Thank you,
Allen Stefanek, President & CEO Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center