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posted by takyon on Tuesday July 30 2019, @04:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the call-the-police dept.

Submitted via IRC for Fnord666

Georgia police hit with ransomware infection

The Georgia Department of Public Safety was hit by a ransomware infection Friday that affected state patrol, capitol police and the Georgia Motor Carrier Compliance Division, which does safety inspections. Laptops installed in police cars lost connectivity and access to police information as a result, CNET sister site ZDNet reported Monday.

Ransomware attacks use malware to lock out users unless the hackers get paid. Cities and municipalities often get targeted because they can't afford to have services down.

The infection was contained by DPS shutting down its IT systems, including email servers, public website and backend servers. Police officers are instead using their work phones and car radios to request information, ZDNet said.

[...] In July, more than 225 US mayors signed a resolution not to pay ransoms to hackers. Twenty-two cyberattacks have shut down city, county and state government computer systems this year alone including the hacks against two Florida cities, Lake City and Rivera Beach, that saw a combined ransom of more than $1 million.


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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 30 2019, @04:29PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 30 2019, @04:29PM (#873155)

    With the increasing number of municipalities being hit by ransomware I would think verifying backups and DRPs would be on the front burner of every city, count and state agency.

    Some places never learn, such as Baltimore who were hit last year and then again this year. Both infections crippled the affected areas (one was law enforcement and one city operations).

    It's not going to get any better, but IT service providers are happy to get the billable hours (and in some cases pay the ransomware and up-charge the agencies).

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 30 2019, @04:56PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 30 2019, @04:56PM (#873168)

    "I would think verifying backups and DRPs would be on the front burner of every city"

    Because no one would consider moving to a more secure platform than Windows.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 30 2019, @08:30PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 30 2019, @08:30PM (#873253)

      Because no one would consider moving to a more secure platform than Windows.

      How long would that project take for a city or police department to complete? Identifying requirements, finding software that would replace all existing applications (not just MS Office), converting existing data and documents, basic testing, pilot testing, addressing any problems, planning a roll out, training support staff, training end users, deployment, parallel testing, switching over, etc. Oh yeah, I forgot they have to make budget proposals and get them approved.

      So what happens if they get hit by ransomware between today and the completed migration?

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 30 2019, @09:29PM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 30 2019, @09:29PM (#873267) Journal

        So what happens if they get hit by ransomware between today and the completed migration?

        Suck it up and keep migrating. The problem isn't what happens during a window of vulnerability that one hasn't closed yet, but what happens when they don't even start to close that window?

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday July 30 2019, @10:53PM

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 30 2019, @10:53PM (#873307) Journal

        Doesn't much matter. The further the city moves toward complete conversion, the more money in graft will be applied toward reversing that decision. Or, Microsoft will just buy a mayor (or governor) and install him to reverse the decision. Munich was a FOSS pioneer, then they decided to suck the Microsoft ass again.

      • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday July 31 2019, @12:43AM

        by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday July 31 2019, @12:43AM (#873348) Journal

        And what is the TCO if they get hit with ransomware every 6 months and they DON'T convert from Windows?

        Say, $600,000 every 6 months for YEARS.

        What's the TCO then?

        Start now and if it takes 2 years, you've lost say $2,400,000ish dollars.
        Don't ever start and what's that come to? Let's see... $infinity plus $infinity...carry the $infinity... Plus, how much longer will your insurance pay it?

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
      • (Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday July 31 2019, @02:04AM

        by legont (4179) on Wednesday July 31 2019, @02:04AM (#873373)

        A better question would be "how many traffic tickets this would take".

        --
        "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 31 2019, @07:46AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 31 2019, @07:46AM (#873465)

        We are now too deeply hooked into the proprietary junk and are powerless.