NPR.

This is the indicator from planet money.

This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Patty Hirsch.

And I'm Waylon Wong.

At the end of January, Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago got hacked.

On Wednesday, January 31st, based on evidence of suspicious activity and consistent with best practices,

we took our systems offline. We can now confirm that our network was accessed by a known criminal threat actor.

The hack appears to be what's called a ransomware attack where the criminals demand a ransom

from the company to restore its operations.

A ransomware gang named Riceida, a kind of centipede, has claimed responsibility.

These types of attacks have been happening a lot more lately and particularly to health care companies.

The Identity Theft Resource Center, which tracks hacks and data theft, says health care topped the list

in the US last year for what they call compromises. The industry suffered

369 successful cyber attacks. That's more than the government,

education and tech sectors combined.

So on today's

today's show we'll ask why hacking is surging right now, why health care

companies in particular are being targeted, what hackers want from them and

whether this is a solution.

That's coming up after the break, which is just about long enough for you to change your

password, by the way.

From password one to password two.

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