Ransom

Yours truly would love to hear from computer gurus whether the situation described below could have been avoided by regular backups of computer data to some alternative site.

From Bloomberg, 6-26-20: The University of California, San Francisco paid criminal hackers $1.14 million this month to resolve a ransomware attack. The hackers encrypted data on servers inside the school of medicine, the university said Friday. While researchers at UCSF are among those leading coronavirus-related antibody testing, the attack didn’t impede its Covid-19 work, it said. The university is working with a team of cybersecurity contractors to restore the hampered servers “soon.” ...  The university declined to say what was in the files that was worth more than $1 million, except that it didn’t believe patient medical records were exposed.

Full story at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-27/california-university-paid-1-14-million-after-ransomware-attack