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Ransomware gangs made millions extorting hospitals and schools. The pandemic showed just how dangerous that was.

- By Renee Dudley and Daniel Golden

On a bleak St. Patrick’s Day in 2020, with holiday festivities canceled as covid-19 swept across the U.S., Lawrence Abrams sent messages to ten of the largest ransomware gangs in the world. Stop attacking hospitals and other medical facilities for the duration of the pandemic, he pleaded. Too many lives were at stake.

As the founder and owner of the most influential news website dedicated to ransomware, Abrams was one of the few people with the connections and credibility to make such a request. His site, BleepingComputer, was one part demilitarized zone, one part neighborhood pub: a place where victims, media, law enforcement, cybersecurity buffs, and criminals all mixed.

Ransomware is one of the most pervasive and fastest-growing cybercrimes. Typically, the attackers capitalize on a cybersecurity flaw or get an unsuspecting person to open an attachment or click on a link. Once inside a computer system, ransomware encrypts the files, rendering them inaccessible without the right decryption key—the string of characters that can unlock the information. In recent years, hundreds of ransomware strains with odd names like Bad Rabbit and LockerGoga have paralyzed the computers of companies, government offices, nonprofit organizations, and millions of individuals. Once they have control, the hackers demand thousands, millions, or even tens of millions of dollars to restore operations.