The Medstar breach is the latest in a growing list of attacks on health care systems. A month ago Hollywood Presbyterian hospital in Los Angeles had to give $17,000 to hackers who had infected their systems with an email attachment.

But paying up is no guarantee that a facility will get its network back — or that information hasn't been stolen. "Although most security experts and law enforcement personnel will advise against paying the ransom, many companies do pay, particularly if the information encrypted are, "'crown jewels' and hard to replace," a lawyer for the American Hospital Association lawyer noted on its site, according to the Baltimore Sun, adding that "it's important to understand there is never a guarantee that you will even get your data back, and the hackers now know you are willing to pay the ransom."


MedStar runs 10 hospitals in the Maryland and D.C. region, including MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. Its location have a staff of 30,000 and 6,000 affiliated physicians.

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