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A Florida city's council voted to pay a ransom of $600,000 in Bitcoin to hackers that targeted its computer systems — and the payout is a sign of how unprepared much of the US is to deal with a coming wave of cyber attacks.
The city council of Riviera Beach, 50 miles north of Fort Lauderdale, voted on Monday to meet the demands of their hackers in the hope of getting back their compromised data, CBS News reported.
According to The Palm Beach Post, the attack began on May 29, when a employee from the police department opened an email attachment that contained malware. The software quickly spread through the city's computer systems, affecting its email system and even the 911 dispatch operations.
The New York Times reported that the hackers demanded their ransom in bitcoin. The paper noted that there is no guarantee that hackers will honor their end of the deal after getting the money. CBS reported that the council already voted to spend $1 million on new computers after the attack.
Also at CNN.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @09:32PM (2 children)
Of course the hackers will honor their deal, for the simple reason that it's good for business.
It's just like pirates back during the age of sail (and now). The reason they hoisted the black flag was to get ships to peacefully surrender with the expectation that they'd be treated reasonably well. If they get a reputation for pillaging and murder people who do what they say, how soon until even minor events are met with deadly resistance? Compare how people treat plane hijackers before 9/11 against how they are treated after that event.
The hackers would have the option of either (1) having ashamed and chagrined city angry at them, or (2) having rightly angry city out for blood, raising as much hell as they possibly can to the state of Florida and to the federal government. It's a pretty easy calculation.
Yes there is a slight chance that there is something else driving their motivations, and they just want to watch the world burn, but it's a pretty slim chance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 20 2019, @10:03PM
How are they treated? Have any examples? I can't think of a hijacking after 9/11.
(Score: 2) by toddestan on Sunday June 23 2019, @04:54PM
You're making the assumption that the hackers behind all these attacks are one unified group, and that they are competent. Perhaps that was true for the first instances of ransomware like this, but once those hackers were successful (or at least perceived to be successful), we now have a bunch of copycats - many of which are little more than script kiddies who really don't know what they are doing. Or for that matter, won't think of anything else other than to take the money and run.