LOS ANGELES (AP) — A large Los Angeles hospital owned by a South Korean company chose to pay hackers who were holding its computer network hostage, a move its CEO said was in its best interest and the most efficient way to end the problem.

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center said Wednesday it paid the 40 bitcoins, or about $17,000, demanded when it fell victim to what's commonly called "ransomware."

"Unfortunately, a lot of companies don't tell anybody if they had fallen victim to ransomware, and especially if they have paid the criminals," said Adam Kujawa, Head of Malware Intelligence for Malwarebytes, a San Jose-based company that recently released anti-ransomware software.

Computer security experts normally recommend people not pay the ransom, though at times law enforcement agencies suggest they do, Kujawa said.

The FBI said it is investigating the ransomware attack, but have provided no details beyond that. The 434-bed hospital was sold to CHA Medical Center of South Korea in 2004.

During 2013, the number of attacks each month rose from 100,000 in January to 600,000 in December, according to a 2014 report by Symantec, the maker of antivirus software.

The infiltration at Hollywood Presbyterian was first noticed on Feb. 5, CEO Allen Stefanek said in a statement. Its system was fully functioning again by Monday, 10 days later.

The hospital did not say whether anyone in law enforcement or the technology business had recommended it pay off the hackers and quickly obtain the digital key used to be able to access its data again.

Neither law enforcement nor the hospital gave any indication of who might have been behind the attack or whether there are any suspects.

Bitcoins, the online currency that is hard to trace, is becoming the preferred way for hackers collect a ransom, FBI Special Agent Thomas Grasso, who is part of the government's efforts to fight malicious software including ransomware, told The Associated Press last year.

Patient care at Hollywood Presbyterian was not affected by the hacking, and there is no evidence any patient data was compromised, Stefanek said.

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Associated Press Writer Amanda Lee Myers contributed to this report.