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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: 2) by legont on Wednesday July 31 2019, @02:11AM

    by legont (4179) on Wednesday July 31 2019, @02:11AM (#873381)

    Somehow I suspect that police is hit mostly for fun. That would be especially true for folks who were forced to leave the country say on pee at a tree charges.

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