Silicon Valley-
Malware attacks on prominent businesses and institutions are nothing new. But experts say the shift to working from home amid the COVID-19 pandemic may be making it easier for hackers to find a way in.
The University of California, San Francisco paid a ransom of $1.14 million to hackers in June to recover data from its School of Medicine that had been encrypted in a cyberattack, the university announced Friday. The attack marked the third in a string of recent cyberattacks carried out against universities.
The prestigious medical school is among several universities to have been targeted by ransomware in recent months. ‘Netwalker’, the ransomware software responsible for the UCSF hack, was used to carry out similar attacks against Michigan State University and Columbia College, Chicago in late May and early June. Michigan State opted not to pay its ransom at the advice of law enforcement, which resulted in financial documents and personal information from the university being published online.
