A town in Florida, which was recently targeted in a ransomware attack, has decided to pay the $600,000 ransom.
Municipal computers for Riviera Beach, a suburb of Palm Beach, were rendered unusable by the ransomware attack. The virus disabled email, hit emergency response systems and forced staff to use paper based admin systems. The local council for the community of 35,000 people voted to pay off the hackers after employing cyber-security consultants to investigate. A spokesperson for the local council said: “We’re relying on their advice”. (The advice of the cyber security experts). Ms Brown said there was no guarantee that the hackers would restore the town’s computers to working order once they had been paid.
The ransom is being paid using bitcoin and the payment is being covered by the town’s insurance policy.
The computers were struck by the ransomware in late May after an employee clicked on an infected attachment in an email. The c attack also led to water pump stations being turned off and required pay cheques
to be signed and issued by hand.
“Cyber-criminals always try to get maximum profit doing the least effort, that’s why targeting city technology is a good business opportunity to them,” said Cesar Cerrudo, chief technology officer at security firm IOActive.
The FBI, who are believed to be investigating the attack, haven’t commented on the attack, but disclosed that ransomware attacks netted attackers millions of dollars last year.
