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The dangerous software usually comes in the form of a spam email, which is being sent in the form of an invoice, a website or video.

When the computer user opens the attachment, the software then gets to work encrypting all of the data on the user’s computer. By encrypting the data it locks out the user, making the data inaccessible to the computer user. In order to regain access to the files on the computer, the user is forced to pay a ransom. The ransom is usually requested in Bitcoin, which cannot be traced. However, there is no guarantee that paying the ransom will see the data on the machine unlocked.

The Ottawa Hospital is the second hospital to report being hit by Ransomware in recent weeks. Last month, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Centre in Los Angeles, CA, was hit by a widespread infection of ransomware that locked down a vast majority of computers and computer systems within the hospital, significantly impacting its ability to operate. The hospital was forced to pay a ransom of $17,000 U.S. in Bitcoin to unlock its systems.

Computer security researcher McAfee has named ransomware as one of the biggest security threats of 2016. It’s one that will affect consumers and businesses equally as the criminals behind the malicious software don’t care who the virus infects as long as people are paying their ransoms. According to the researcher there were more than four million samples of Ransomware floating around on the Internet last year, more than 1.2 million of those samples were new.