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Ransomware Attack Paralyses St Louis Libraries as Hackers Demand Bitcoins

posted by on Wednesday January 25 2017, @09:51AM   Printer-friendly
from the we-don't-negotiate-with-terrorists dept.

Fnord666 writes:

Apparently it's the library's turn to pay a fine.

Libraries in St Louis have been bought to a standstill after computers in all the city's libraries were infected with ransomware, a particularly virulent form of computer virus used to extort money from victims.

Hackers are demanding $35,000 (£28,000) to restore the system after the cyberattack, which affected 700 computers across the Missouri city's 16 public libraries. The hackers demanded the money in electronic currency bitcoin, but, as CNN reports, the authority has refused to pay for a code that would unlock the machines.

As a result, the library authority has said it will wipe its entire computer system and rebuild it from scratch, a solution that may take weeks.

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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Wednesday January 25 2017, @11:39AM

    by anubi (2828) on Wednesday January 25 2017, @11:39AM (#458456) Journal

    Anybody here not see this kind of stuff coming?

    To me, it seems Congress and business management are the only ones so high up to not see this under their feet.

    In an effort to accommodate business models of snooping and controlling everyone by remote means, having Congress pass law to shield them from people reversing their software, while still holding them harmless for hostile software, we have let out computer infrastructure become so fragile that as much as opening up an email leads to catastrophe.

    From Malwarebytes: [fortune.com]

    Specifically regarding ransomware attacks, almost half came from employees clicking on something they shouldn't have in emails—this was a particularly successful tactic in the U.S. and Germany. The targets were mid-level managers or higher approximately 80% of the time.

    We now have the system operating under the laws passed by Congress... not laws of common sense.

    Quit mixing code and data! This is what happens when we do.

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
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  • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by Nuke on Wednesday January 25 2017, @01:00PM

    by Nuke (3162) on Wednesday January 25 2017, @01:00PM (#458463)

    WTF are you on about?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 25 2017, @08:13PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 25 2017, @08:13PM (#458631)

      Turn in your geek card. OP is perfectly understandable.

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 25 2017, @03:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 25 2017, @03:59PM (#458511)

    You definitely have a good big-picture view of the information / computer world.

    Quit mixing code and data! This is what happens when we do.

    I've felt strongly about that for 20 years. I've never liked the naivety of Bill Gates / Microsoft in general- OLE, COM, active-X, .net, self-executing downloads, etc. Clicking on a .exe or any executable in a browser, .pdf viewer, word processor, or anything similar should not start code running. It's just not safe at all. I don't care how "cool" it all is.

    javascript is also as a mix of code in what should be only data. I would be OK with javascript if it had no ability to interact with the machine's hardware, file system, external programs, etc...

    The only safe way to run computers is to run browsers in disposable cloned containers.