Hackers offer decrypt key to Irish health service with a catch

A general view of St Luke’s Hospital which has been affected by a ransomware attack, in Rathgar, Dublin. Last week, Ireland’s hospitals were forced to shut down many of their computers after the hackers gained access to the health service’s systems, encrypted patient data so that it was inaccessible and demanded payment to unlock the files. — AP

A day after threatening to publicly release patient data, the hackers who targeted Ireland’s health service offered a decryption key that they said could be used to unlock computers infected with ransomware.

While seeming to offer an olive branch – sharing a link to download the decryption key – the group reiterated its threats to disclose patient data unless Irish authorities paid the US$20mil (RM82.81mil) ransom demand.