‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Fall Finale Cliffhanger: Hospital Shut Down By Ransomware Attack

Grey's Anatomy Ransomware Episode

Ransomware goes prime time: TV Show Grey's Anatomy characters Bailey and Arizona are unable to access medical records on the computer and an I.T. specialist named Tim notes that cardiac monitors are malfunctioning.

Bailey asks for help fixing the problem as the hospital cannot run without access to medical records and the cardiac monitors. Suddenly hospital staff receive a message on their monitors from a hacker in this sneak peek from 'Grey's Anatomy' season 14, episode 8, 'Out of Nowhere.'

The sound of a hospital getting hacked is the cacophony of flatliners, beeps and buzzes, and this week's winter finale of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy was loaded with it all. As the stunned docs looked on, their computer screens fill with messages from a hacker demanding beaucoup bitcoins. $20 million, roughly.

As the various pieces of electronica begin to fail one after another, and the FBI works to crack the case, the doctors go back to the medical Stone Age, paper in clipboards, eyeballs instead of camera scopes. Lines start forming alongside the only working CT scanner, but who goes first? Here is a trailer on YouTube.

How did the screen writing team know how this really worked? They were consulted by KnowBe4's Chief Hacking Officer Kevin Mitnick! He had a long conversation with them explaining in detail how this works.

This has been happening in real life to hospitals on a frequent basis. Almost always, the cause is spear phishing an untrained employee. You work on preventing this from happening with a 7-minute security awareness training module:

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