Communications of the ACM
Florida City Agrees to Pay Hackers $600,000
The city council in Riviera Beach, FL, voted to authorize a nearly $600,000 ransom payment after hackers paralyzed the citys computer systems.
Credit: Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press
The city council of Riviera Beach, FL, submitted to hackers' demands by agreeing to pay almost $600,000 in bitcoin to ransom back their computer systems, held hostage by malware for the past three weeks.
The incident is the latest in a string of high-profile ransomware attacks, one of which cost Baltimore $18 million to repair.
Jason Rebholz with the Moxfive technology advisory firm said the relatively high price for restoring control of Riviera Beach's systems suggests extortionists' growing technical sophistication is encouraging them to target more government agencies.
A 2016 survey of U.S. local government chief information officers found more than a third were using dated technologies, increasing their vulnerability to cyberattacks.
From The New York Times
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