Hacker took control of the city computer system, demanding a $ 600,000 bitcoin ransom in Florida, USA

Florida’s Riviera Beach City Council agreed to pay the huge sum of money.

A city council in the state of Florida, USA, voted through paying a $ 600,000 ransom to convert to Bitcoin for hackers taking control of the city computer system. The case shows that even in a leading country like the US, many cities are still not prepared to cope with the wave of cyberattacks that are close ahead.

Specifically, the Riviera Beach City Council, located 50 miles north of Fort Lauderdale, decided on Monday to meet the demands of hackers hoping to recover important data. has been interfered.

The attack took place on May 29, when an officer of the local Police Department accidentally opened an email with an infected file attached to the malware.

The software quickly spreads across the city’s computer systems, influencing the email system, and even the 911 coordination system.

Of course hackers don’t have to spread malicious code for fun. According to the New York Times, they require ransom to pay with bitcoin. And the problem here is that there is no guarantee that they will comply with the agreement after receiving that amount.

Before accepting the ransom, the Riviera Beach city council agreed to spend $ 1 million to buy new computers.

A spokesman for the city said they were working with law enforcement and security consulting companies to solve the problem. ” We are looking for ways to restore the city’s system,” he said.

Riviera Beach is a clear example of a hacker problem, but this is certainly not the only US city ever threatened by a cyber attack.

Security experts of the federal government and the private sector have repeatedly warned that many US public infrastructures are in the open for hackers to attack, but many organizations are still slow in the defense.

The city of Baltimore is one of the victims of cyber-attacks, almost all of the past month was paralyzed by a cyber attack that closed with a large part of the city computer network.

The attack took place in early May, demolishing the infrastructure of the email system and the water payment system.

As of June 12, local media reported that 30% of the city’s public employees are still unable to access email, and many services will not function fully in the coming months. It is estimated that the attack caused more than $ 18 million in damage to the city.

Hackers asked Baltimore to pay a ransom of $ 76,000, but the city refused.

Another ransom attack took place in Atlanta in March 2018, costing the city about $ 2.6 million.

Albany in New York, San Diego in California, Sarasota in Florida, and Los Angeles hospitals also face similar attacks.

The University of Tulsa, Tyler Moore, cyber security professor, said the attackers found a good attack scenario. They are constantly targeting small city governments until they find vulnerable victims and willing to pay.

The US Department of Security warned in 2018 that municipal governments in the country are being attacked by one of the most expensive and devastating malware.

Such small-scale attacks are warning signs for larger-scale attacks in the future.

Some experts believe that the US network defense barrier will continue to be left open until a catastrophic attack occurs that forces people to notice.

James Andrew Lewis, a senior vice president and chief technology officer of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said: ” I am often asked: how many people died in a cyber attack?” Nobody.

… People often underestimate the consequences they have not noticed immediately. “

Source : Genk