"The [ransoms] heretofore [in health care ransomware attacks] been relatively modest — $20,000 and so on. ...

... And the reaction of other people in the field is, 'these are children.' Because a professional would recognize that a hospital would pay millions to get that data back, and they're only asking for $20,000, $30,000 via Bitcoin. But the point is, unfortunately, that the more professional fraudsters are likely to take notice of the success of the amateurs and start to amplify the vector more. So it's more important that the health care people harden their environments and stay off the list of weak environments. In other words, harden your environment so that when the robot comes by to see if you're weak, it passes you by. It's like a house with big German shepherds inside, the thief goes to the next house. Finally, escalate your employee awareness of fake emails that ask you to click a link — this is the number one method that fraudsters use to get their software on your computer. Delete suspicious emails."

— Varian Medical Systems Director Fred Cox told AIS's Report on Patient Privacy