Jack Spillane reports: Cyber professionals have “strongly advised” the city against providing any details about the impacts of a computer virus that has shut down municipal computers for more than a week. Jonathan Carvalho, the city’s public information officer, released a statement late Friday that said New Bedford continues to implement restoration plans on its…
Category: Malware
Syracuse schools’ hit by ransomware; ransom demands increase as days go by
Julie McMahon reports: Ransomware caused the Syracuse City School District’s week-long computer outage, a source said. The district’s internet has had systemwide outages since an “event” early Monday morning, officials said. Officials released little information about the investigation and cause of the computer outages. In a statement Friday afternoon, a spokesman said an “attack froze…
AZ: Gila County experiences major interruption in technical service
Teresa Mcquerrey reports: Gila County’s email and phone systems were apparently infected by ransomware starting July 2. It took a week before most of its online services were restored. […] As of press time, the county had released no official statement about the cause or scope of the problem with its online services. Read more…
US mayors group adopts resolution not to pay any more ransoms to hackers
Catalin Cimpanu reports: The US Conference of Mayors unanimously adopted yesterday a resolution not to pay any more ransom demands to hackers following ransomware infections. “Paying ransomware attackers encourages continued attacks on other government systems, as perpetrators financially benefit,” the adopted resolution reads. Read more on ZDNet.
Hackers target Monroe College with ransomware, demand $2 million in bitcoin
Stephanie Pagones reports: Monroe College is “under cyberattack” by hackers who demanded approximately $2 million in bitcoin, police and school officials said Thursday. The school’s computer programs were hacked around 6:45 a.m. Wednesday by a group that got in through ransomware and halted the system, cops said. The hackers sent a message demanding that the…
Ransomware Attacks Create Dilemma For Cities: Pay Up Or Resist?
Wade Goodwyn reports: It’s been a bad summer so far for government information systems. Hackers have used ransomware to attack the data networks of Baltimore, the Georgia courts system and Lake City, Fla., to name a few. And the decision as to whether to pay the extortionists ransom is fraught. Pay them, get the decryption…