Jana Grieb and Claus Färber wrote this bylined article on the legal implications of ransomware attacks against German hospitals. Patient information exposed to such attacks is subject to data protection laws, physician professional secrecy rules, German social insurance law and the related penalties for violation, the authors wrote, meaning that “a hospital that has suffered a ransomware attack will not only have to restore service but also remedy the security deficits that made the attack possible in the first place.”