Why a CA hospital paid a $17,000 ransom in bitcoin

The Hollywood hospital that had its electronic patient records hacked and held hostage chose to pay $17,000 in bitcoin to retrieve the ransomed records. The Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital's network came under attack on Feb. 5 by hackers who used a type of malicious software called ransomware to encrypt patient records and make them inaccessible to hospital staff. Hospital CEO Allen Stefanek explained the decision to pay the ransom, writing in a statement that, "The quickest and most efficient way to restore our systems and administrative functions was to pay the ransom and obtain the decryption key."