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	"created_at": "2026-04-06T00:21:55.402868Z",
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	"title": "Several hospitals targeted in new wave of ransomware attacks",
	"llm_title": "",
	"authors": "",
	"file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
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	"plain_text": "Several hospitals targeted in new wave of ransomware attacks\r\nBy Vivian Salama, Alex Marquardt, Lauren Mascarenhas, Zachary Cohen\r\nPublished: 2020-10-28 · Archived: 2026-04-05 22:58:47 UTC\r\nLive TV Listen Watch\r\nUS\r\nInternational\r\nArabic\r\nEspañol\r\nFollow CNN Politics\r\nDownload the CNN App\r\nWorld\r\nAfrica\r\nAmericas\r\nAsia\r\nAustralia\r\nChina\r\nEurope\r\nIndia\r\nMiddle East\r\nUnited Kingdom\r\nUS Politics\r\nElections 2026\r\nTrump\r\nFacts First\r\nCNN Polls\r\nRedistricting Tracker\r\nEpstein Files\r\nBusiness\r\nTech\r\nMedia\r\nCalculators\r\nVideos\r\nMarkets\r\nPre-markets\r\nhttps://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/28/politics/hospitals-targeted-ransomware-attacks/index.html\r\nPage 1 of 5\n\nAfter-Hours\r\nFear \u0026 Greed\r\nInvesting\r\nMarkets Now\r\nNightcap\r\nHealth\r\nLife, But Better\r\nFitness\r\nFood\r\nSleep\r\nMindfulness\r\nRelationships\r\nEntertainment\r\nMovies\r\nTelevision\r\nCelebrity\r\nTech\r\nInnovate\r\nStyle\r\nArts\r\nDesign\r\nFashion\r\nArchitecture\r\nLuxury\r\nBeauty\r\nVideo\r\nTravel\r\nDestinations\r\nFood \u0026 Drink\r\nStay\r\nNews\r\nVideos\r\nSports\r\nFootball\r\nTennis\r\nGolf\r\nMotorsport\r\nUS Sports\r\nOlympics\r\nScience\r\nSpace\r\nLife\r\nhttps://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/28/politics/hospitals-targeted-ransomware-attacks/index.html\r\nPage 2 of 5\n\nUnearthed\r\nClimate\r\nSolutions\r\nWeather\r\nWeather\r\nVideo\r\nClimate\r\nUkraine-Russia War\r\nIsrael-Hamas War\r\nFeatures\r\nAs Equals\r\nCall to Earth\r\nFreedom Project\r\nImpact Your World\r\nInside Africa\r\nCNN Heroes\r\nWatch\r\nLive TV\r\nFeatured\r\nCNN Fast\r\nShows A-Z\r\nCNN 10\r\nCNN TV Schedule\r\nListen\r\nCNN 5 Things\r\nChasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta\r\nThe Assignment with Audie Cornish\r\nOne Thing\r\nTug of War\r\nCNN Political Briefing\r\nThe Axe Files\r\nAll There Is with Anderson Cooper\r\nAll CNN Audio podcasts\r\nGames\r\nDaily Crossword\r\nJumble Crossword\r\nPhoto Shuffle\r\nSudoblock\r\nSudoku\r\n5 Things Quiz\r\nAbout CNN\r\nPhotos\r\nhttps://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/28/politics/hospitals-targeted-ransomware-attacks/index.html\r\nPage 3 of 5\n\nInvestigations\r\nCNN Profiles\r\nCNN Leadership\r\nCNN Newsletters\r\nWork for CNN\r\nDownload the CNN App\r\nCNN — \r\nSeveral hospitals across the United States have been targeted in ransomware attacks in what appears to be an\r\nescalation and expansion of similar attacks previously launched on other hospitals and medical facilities.\r\nThe US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released a warning advisory Wednesday night regarding\r\nransomware activity targeting health care facilities. On Twitter, CISA said “there is an imminent and increased\r\ncybercrime threat to U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers.”\r\n“CISA, FBI, and (the Department of Health and Human Services) have credible information of an increased and\r\nimminent cybercrime threat to U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers,” the advisory stated. “CISA, FBI, and\r\nHHS are sharing this information to provide warning to healthcare providers to ensure that they take timely and\r\nreasonable precautions to protect their networks from these threats.”\r\nA Trump administration official told CNN that some hospitals have already been affected.\r\nRansomware is a type of malware, or malicious software, that encrypts a victim’s files. The attacker then typically\r\ndemands a ransom from the victim to restore access to the data upon payment. Users are often shown instructions\r\nfor how to pay a fee to get the decryption key. The costs can range from a few hundred dollars to thousands, often\r\npayable to cybercriminals in Bitcoin.\r\nRansomware and other cyber attacks have seen a sharp rise this year, and hospitals have been particularly\r\nvulnerable since the start of the global pandemic. Since July, hospitals in states including New York, Nebraska,\r\nOhio, Missouri and Michigan have all been attacked by some form of ransomware.\r\nA Trump administration official told CNN that several hospitals have been targeted in the attacks over the past two\r\ndays, and while it’s still early, the official said the incidents may be connected. The federal government is\r\ninvestigating the attacks, the official said.\r\nSo far, St. Lawrence Health Systems in New York and the Sky Lakes Medical Center in Oregon confirmed to\r\nCNN that they were targeted over the past few days. The University of Vermont Health Network said in a press\r\nrelease Thursday that it is experiencing a “significant” and “ongoing” system-wide network issue, and is\r\ninvestigating all possible causes, including “a malicious cyberattack.”\r\nExperts with Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm, said they identified at least three attacks on Tuesday and one on\r\nWednesday, with patients getting diverted to other hospitals as a result.\r\n“We are experiencing the most significant cyber security threat we’ve ever seen in the United States,” Charles\r\nCarmakal, SVP and CTO of Mandiant, said. “An Eastern European financially motivated threat actor, is\r\nhttps://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/28/politics/hospitals-targeted-ransomware-attacks/index.html\r\nPage 4 of 5\n\ndeliberately targeting and disrupting U.S. hospitals, forcing them to divert patients to other healthcare providers.\r\nPatients may experience prolonged wait time to receive critical care.”\r\nAllan Liska, an intelligence analyst for the firm Recorded Future, told CNN that his company knows of at least six\r\nattacks in the last 24 hours and “there are probably more.”\r\nIt is “absolutely the biggest thing we’ve ever seen. In terms of ransomware it’s the biggest attack we’ve ever\r\nseen,” he said, adding that it’s “crushing to see so many hospitals hit at the same time.”\r\nChris Krebs, director of CISA, warned health care and public health individuals to have their “shields up! Assume\r\nRyuk is inside the house. Executives - be ready to activate business continuity and disaster recovery plans. IT sec\r\nteams - patch, MFA, check logs, make sure you have a good backup point.”\r\nIn a statement from the St. Lawrence Health Systems, the virus has been identified as a new variant of Ryuk\r\nransomware, previously unknown to antivirus software providers and security agencies.\r\nIt is not known who carried out the attacks, but overall, the incidents represent a solid expansion of hospital\r\ntargets in a short period of time who have sought to take advantage of the crush facing hospitals in the wake of the\r\nglobal pandemic.\r\nRansomware can have devastating effects. Most recently, it crippled the IT network of a German hospital resulting\r\nin the death of a woman seeking emergency treatment.\r\nAccording to Microsoft Corporate Vice President for Customer Security and Trust Tom Burt, Ryuk is a\r\nsophisticated crypto-ransomware because it identifies and encrypts network files and disables Windows System\r\nRestore to prevent people from being able to recover from the attack without external backups. Ryuk has been\r\nattacking organizations, including municipal governments, state courts, hospitals, nursing homes, enterprises and\r\nlarge universities.\r\nAccording to Burt, Ryuk has been attributed to attacks targeting a contractor for the Department of Defense, the\r\nNorth Carolina city of Durham, an IT provider for 110 nursing homes and a number of hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic.\r\nCORRECTION: This story has been corrected to remove references to Universal Health Services, which was not\r\ntargeted in the most recent attack.\r\nSource: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/28/politics/hospitals-targeted-ransomware-attacks/index.html\r\nhttps://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/28/politics/hospitals-targeted-ransomware-attacks/index.html\r\nPage 5 of 5",
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	"language": "EN",
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