Health organizations increasingly are targets of cyber-extortion plots aimed at hijacking patients' sensitive personal data, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services warns.
About 3.6 million records were involved in 146 hack-type breaches of medical organizations made public in 2017 alone, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit group based in San Diego.
Lawyers themselves were exposed to the horrors of cyber extortion last June when a malicious software called Petya crippled DLA Piper, locking its computers' users out of their devices' data in exchange for a $300 ransom payment, according to reports on ALM affiliate publications.
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Kristen Rasmussen
Kristen Rasmussen is an Atlanta-based reporter who covers corporate law departments and in-house attorneys.
