GA: Records reveal City of Cartersville paid ransomware attackers $380K

James Swift reports:

On May 6, 2019, the City of Cartersville alerted residents that the local government had fallen prey to a ransomware attack. Yet since then, details on the size, scope and severity of the cybersecurity breach have remained scarce.

City officials broke their nearly yearlong silence on the cyberattack, however, in the wake of an Open Records Request filed by The Daily Tribune News.

Newly publicized documents indicate the City of Cartersville did indeed pay the ransomware attackers — to the tune of $380,000 in non-tradable Bitcoins, “with an additional $7,755.65 paid for transaction fees and negotiators.”