[ZDNET] The University of Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, at the Socialist paradise of San Francisco...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964...
(UCSF) has admitted to paying a partial ransom demand of $1.14 million to recover files locked down by a ransomware infection.
The university was struck on June 1, where malware was found in the UCSF School of Medicine's IT systems. Administrators quickly attempted to isolate the infection and ringfence a number of systems that prevented the ransomware from traveling to the core UCSF network and causing further damage.
While the school says the cyberattack did not affect "our patient care delivery operations, overall campus network, or COVID-19 work," UCSF servers used by the school of medicine were encrypted.
Ransomware can be particularly destructive as once a system is compromised, content is encrypted and rendered inaccessible. Victims are then faced with a choice: potentially lose their files, or pay a ransom demand. Cyberattackers will often include a time limit for a decision to be made to ramp up the pressure to pay.
As shown in this case, blackmail demands can reach millions of dollars.
"The attackers obtained some data as proof of their action, to use in their demand for a ransom payment," the university said in a statement. "We are continuing our investigation, but we do not currently believe patient medical records were exposed."