Ransomware Attack On United States City, Decided To Pay
According to Riviera Beach city officials in Florida. US, decide to pay around $600,000 worth in 65 bitcoin of ransom to regain the computer data.
What happened?
One of the Police department employee has opened a malicious email and suffered a Ransomware attack. All computer files was encrypted.
Reported by PalmBeach Post,
The city’s email and computer systems, at City Hall, the city’s Port Center offices and elsewhere, including those that control city finances and water utility pump stations and testing systems, are still only partially back online, two weeks after the ransomware attack was disclosed. But crucial data encrypted by the attackers remains beyond reach and there was no explanation of whether the city has any guarantee that the ransomers will release it if paid.
Cyber Investigation is on going
The intelligence agencies are investigating the cyber attack.
There are more than 50 cities across the United States have been hit by Ransomware attacks since last two years.
“This whole thing is so new to me and so foreign and it’s almost where I can’t even believe that this happens but I’m learning that it’s not as uncommon as we would think it is,” Riviera Beach Council Chairwoman KaShamba Miller-Anderson said Wednesday. “Every day I’m learning how this even operates, because it just sounds so far fetched to me.”
Also Read- Ransomware And Their Types
The council on June 4 authorized $941,000 for 310 new desktop and 90 laptop computers and other hardware. Insurance will cover more than $300,000 of that total.
The city already planned to spend $300,000 for equipment replacements in the next budget and will accelerate that expense, Councilwoman Julie Botel said. Much of the existing hardware was a half-dozen years old and vulnerable to another malware attack, so it was time to replace it anyway, she said.
One of the Report by MalwareBytes said, the Ransomware attempts on business jumped by 500 percent in the last year.
It should be noted to people that how Cyber Awareness is must important, even for officials departments too.
On May, New Ransomware Variant RobbinHood Attack on US city, Baltimore.
