Los Angeles hospital pays hackers US$17,000 ransom

New York

IT sounds like the plot of a Hollywood thriller, but the all-too-real scenario played out this month at a large Los Angeles hospital: Hackers seized control of critical computer systems and the hospital paid a US$17,000 ransom to release them.

So-called ransomware attacks have increased significantly in the past year, security specialists say, and the hospital, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, is not the first to fall victim.