{"id":18473,"date":"2016-10-20T06:24:18","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T06:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drprem.com\/medical-tourism\/?p=18473"},"modified":"2016-10-20T06:30:13","modified_gmt":"2016-10-20T06:30:13","slug":"ransomware-rising-threats-being-compromised-in-medical-tourism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drprem.com\/medical-tourism\/ransomware-rising-threats-being-compromised-in-medical-tourism\/","title":{"rendered":"Ransomware: Rising threats being compromised in Medical tourism\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ransomware is software that helps someone with malicious intention to get access to your physical, mental and healthcare data. It is as vile and as criminal as extorting a victim at the gunpoint. Here the victim is the patient who is vulnerable to Ransomware aided assault.<\/p>\n

This malevolent software locks up data in the hospital’s computer network and leaves threatening cannonballs demanding money if the hospital wants the data to be unlocked.
\nAlmost 50 % of the US hospitals have been infected with Ransomware; thus, giving the authorities and patients sleepless nights.<\/p>\n

\"Ransomware<\/p>\n

The vital data that the Ransomware takes hostage could include patient’s health parameters on which the treatment and survival of the patient depend like body temperature, blood pressure, pulse beat, respiratory rate, blood count, serum levels and other important database.<\/p>\n

How would you feel seeing someone playing with the life of your dearest ones admitted in a clinic?<\/p>\n

Since Ransomware has turned into a lucrative blackmailing device for\u00a0money extortion for cybercriminals, the rise in assaults had been phenomenal over the years, putting several US hospitals in the grip of terror.<\/p>\n

Hacker targets hospitals around the world<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Hacker<\/p>\n

The ordeal faced by Hollywood’s Presbyterian Medical Centre for being assaulted by Ransomware had become infamous because this malicious software had crippled hospital’s entire electronic database for days demanding money to be paid to the hackers.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the hospital had to pay the ransom for 40 bit coins, a digital currency of floating worth. Each bit coin is rated around 420 USD in the early February 2016. After the payment was done, the system resumed functioning\u00a0ten days later.<\/p>\n

The signature route for a Ransomware assault would come in the shape of an emailed link posted on a hospital staff’s PC. As he clicks on the link or attachment, the\u00a0computer gets locked and entire network system gets paralyzed. Victims are compelled to pay the hackers and desperate to get the ‘ key’ to unlock the data.<\/p>\n

In many hospitals, the medical equipments run on outdated operating systems which are not insulated against malicious wares by security firewalls. These become the easiest targets for Ransomware hackers.<\/p>\n

Hospitals have been lagging far behind other industries so far as software nuances are concerned. They also lack both the knowledge and system upgrade to combat effectively malicious software striking out of the blue with an element of threat. Since hospitals operate on the premises of the question of life and death\u00a0of patients, many have preferred to bow down before the option of ransom payment.<\/p>

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A study revealed that the number of Ransomware assaults would likely to rise in 2016 due to an enhancement in the refinement of\u00a0software used to launch an attack. The easiest and the best defense against Ransomware would be not to click on any unknown links and attachments tied to an email dropped in the in-box.<\/p>\n

Why hackers want your health care data?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Technician<\/p>\n

Malicious software is a curse of electronic media of communication and they had been in existence for around a decade now. However, of late their assaults have come into limelight whose main target is the healthcare industry. The reason for hospitals being the ideal hunting ground for hackers could be seen easily:<\/p>\n