Florida city to pay $600K ransom to hacker who seized computer systems weeks ago

[Mike Honcho 4,009]

Quote

A Florida city is paying $600,000 in Bitcoins to a hacker who took over local government computers after an employee clicked on a malicious email link three weeks ago.

Riviera Beach officials voted this week to pay 65 Bitcoins to the hacker who seized the city's computer systems, forcing the local police and fire departments to write down the hundreds of daily 911 calls on paper, CNN affiliate WPEC reported.

The 65 Bitcoins, which equals $600,000, will come from the city's insurance, officials said.

CNN

 

Just posting as a public safety message/reminder.   

[Fireballer 2,369]

6 minutes ago, Mike Honcho said:

Just posting as a public safety message/reminder.   

This happened to Baltimore too not long ago.  Not sure what the outcome was.  I work for a large municipality and this stuff is ending our IT guys into a frenzy.

[Filthy Fernadez 2,696]

8 minutes ago, Mike Honcho said:

Just posting as a public safety message/reminder.   

Amazing that they can't trace it back to whoever is controlling the computers.

[lod001 1,235]

Idiot IT department. I had 1 computer get it from an e-mail link. Clean computer, fock you ransom.

Among other things, I have a years worth of backups and constantly remind people that email is where these things get in. We are bombarded with fake emails for invoices but these hackers are stupid. I've only seen one so far that I questioned it's legitimacy. The rest have serious Grammer issues or obvious spoofed addresses. Come on loser, that e-mail came from Spain. I also block almost every country from accessing our network.

It is the #1 threat, however. 

[lod001 1,235]

13 minutes ago, Filthy Fernadez said:

Amazing that they can't trace it back to whoever is controlling the computers.

Won't matter. They are outside the US and most likely in a country like china, Russia or north Korea.

[fandandy 3,311]

Quote

Riviera Beach officials voted this week to pay 65 Bitcoins to the hacker who seized the city's computer systems, forcing the local police and fire departments to write down the hundreds of daily 911 calls on paper, CNN affiliate WPEC reported.  To make matters worse, the following week, burglars broke in and stole all their paper and ink pens.

 

[Voltaire 4,554]

Um... and I readily admit to being the dumbest computer person in the forum ... but why would saying "No, fock off" not be the best option?

[Strike 3,948]

41 minutes ago, Voltaire said:

Um... and I readily admit to being the dumbest computer person in the forum ... but why would saying "No, fock off" not be the best option?

If you don't value your data sure that's a good option, but many businesses do.  As lod001 indicated, if they had good backups going back a while this wouldn't be an issue.  But I deal with customers every day that don't have backups despite it being in our contract that they have to have good backups.  It's unreal.  Anywhere I've ever worked as an Admin backups were one of our top priorities.  It amazes me in this day and age how many idiots are in charge of large computer systems.

[supermike80 1,285]

Wonder what it would cost to just get a new system?  

 

Well, I guess about 900K according to some newspapers.

Crazy man

[Patriotsfatboy1 1,432]

I believe the city of Atlanta got hit last year and it was costing them over $17m at last check. 

https://www.govtech.com/security/What-Can-We-Learn-from-Atlanta.html

[TimmySmith 2,782]

This scam has been going on for years and the NSA is really turning a blind eye to it, IMO.  I don't know why. 

[lod001 1,235]

1 hour ago, TimmySmith said:

This scam has been going on for years and the NSA is really turning a blind eye to it, IMO.  I don't know why. 

The funny thing is that NSA created the thing and it got into the wrong hands.

[tanatastic 2,061]

Why wouldn’t they just do it again and ask for more? Never pay ransoms.

[frank 2,144]

3 minutes ago, tanatastic said:

Why wouldn’t they just do it again and ask for more? Never pay ransoms.

Understand... you will never see this money. Not one dollar. So you still have a chance to do the right thing. If you don't, well, then, God be with you, because nobody else on this Earth will be.

[avoiding injuries 1,220]

14 hours ago, Fireballer said:

This happened to Baltimore too not long ago.  Not sure what the outcome was.  I work for a large municipality and this stuff is ending our IT guys into a frenzy.

 

It’s still ongoing. It has been weeks and is affecting all real estate transactions, water bills and many, many other things. Baltimore is holding out paying them the bitcoins...

[Cdub100 3,366]

Someone's brother in law is running that IT department. 

[BiPolarBear 476]

On 6/20/2019 at 10:13 AM, lod001 said:

The funny thing is that NSA created the thing and it got into the wrong hands.

And the NSA lets it continue, because the hacks are so valuable to them for their own surveillance.   

[jerryskids 5,169]

On 6/20/2019 at 6:26 AM, Strike said:

If you don't value your data sure that's a good option, but many businesses do.  As lod001 indicated, if they had good backups going back a while this wouldn't be an issue.  But I deal with customers every day that don't have backups despite it being in our contract that they have to have good backups.  It's unreal.  Anywhere I've ever worked as an Admin backups were one of our top priorities.  It amazes me in this day and age how many idiots are in charge of large computer systems.

I work for a high-tech company, the kind of company whose entire existence depends on the IP of the software it provides.  We have a backup service but it is one of the best-kept secrets in our company, it's remarkable.  I finally looked into it after my Dell laptop battery overheated, expanded, and IMO put the integrity of the entire computer and drive at risk.  "Oh yeah, we have backup, go to this site and...."   Nobody had ever told me about it.  I luckily haven't had to use the backup but I think I'm covered. 

[edjr 5,547]

We use sophos.