Last week, Universal Health Services, confirmed that the ransomware attack on their networks on September 27^th affected computers at all of their US care sites and hospitals. The ransomware that hit UHS, one of the largest health systems in the US, is the infamous Ryuk, which has been wreaking havoc in targeted ransomware attacks since 2018. During the attack, the Ryuk began shut down systems in the emergency department, as well as additional systems causing some ambulances had to be diverted, and lab test results became delayed. Technicians at some UHS-owned facilities described reverting to pen-and-paper during the attack.

The alarming concept of IoT cyber attacks sends us straight to a dystopic vision of crashing automatic cars, and smart elevators stuck in place with evil music playing in the background. Looming over the excitement for next generation technology is a cloud of worry about the cyber implications of connecting everyday devices to the internet. While we’re sure that a hospital whose critical scanning machines are being held captive by ransomware will pay up, we don’t tend to stop and think about our small day-to-day actions that may be affected as well. If your printer was held hostage by ransomware before a critical meeting, and you had to pay $100 to free it – would you?