DCS hospital reportedly pays hackers after ransomware attack
Published 2:05 pm Saturday, October 5, 2019
An Alabama hospital system that quit accepting new patients after a ransomware attack says it has gotten a key to unlock its computer systems.
DCH Health Systems announced Saturday it is bringing systems back online.
A statement didn’t say how the three-hospital system got the key to unlock its data. But The Tuscaloosa News quotes spokesman Brad Fisher as saying the hospital system paid the attackers.
The company stopped accepting new patients at its hospitals in Tuscaloosa, Northport and Fayette because of a ransomware attack that hit early Tuesday. New patients were sent to hospitals in Birmingham or elsewhere.
The statement says the hospitals will continue diverting all but the most critically ill patients through the weekend.
The hospitals say hackers used the ransomware variant Ryuk to lock its files.