In the University Hospital of Düsseldorf, a woman died as a result of a ransomware attack. The woman was brought in in a critical condition. Because the hospital’s entire IT infrastructure had been taken hostage and was therefore down, she was taken to another hospital. Because of this she had to wait more than an hour before she could be treated, she died not much later. AP reports that.
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In a ransomware attack, hackers encrypt the servers of their victims. They often demand a ransom for the ‘encryption key’. Only then can the servers be ‘decrypted’ and the owners of the servers and / or computers can regain access to the data.
According to the German authorities, it is the first time that a person dies as a result of a cyber attack, albeit indirectly. The hackers struck last week and got. Scheduled operations were postponed and the hospital’s entire IT infrastructure was running at half speed because patient data was locked.
Last Thursday, a woman was taken to hospital in a critical condition. On the spot it became clear that she could not be treated there because of the hack. She was rushed to another hospital about 30 km away, but all in all, it took more than an hour for the woman to receive treatment. She has since passed away.
According to the Minister of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia, the hackers have locked some thirty servers. They also left a message. It was striking that they did not mention any amount and their note was also addressed to Heinrich Heine University. The hospital is cooperating with the university, but apparently the hackers were mistaken about the target. When the police contacted the hackers to inform them of their mistake and that they were endangering the lives of several patients, the hospital was given the encryption key to release the servers.
Police have started an investigation into ‘involuntary manslaughter’ because the woman’s death is due to the delay in the transport of sick people due to the hack. There is no trace of the hackers for the time being.
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