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Ransomware: Why one city chose to the pay the ransom after falling victim
From: InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2020 06:11:56 +0000 (UTC)
https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-why-one-city-chose-to-the-pay-the-ransom-after-falling-victim/ By Danny Palmer ZDNet.com August 12, 2020A US city has explained why it gave into the demands of cyber criminals and paid a ransom demand of $45,000 following a ransomware attack.
Lafayette, Colorado fell victim to ransomware on July 27, which encrypted the city's computer networks and caused disruptions to phone services, email and online-payment and reservation systems.
It's thought that the ransomware – which hasn't been identified – entered the city's network via a phishing or brute force attack and wasn't part of a targeted campaign, but rather one that just set out to exploit vulnerable systems.
After examining the incident the city of Lafayette opted to pay the cyber criminals the ransom they demanded, perceiving it to be the quickest and most cost effective way to restore municipal services to residents, rather than attempting to restore services from scratch.
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- Ransomware: Why one city chose to the pay the ransom after falling victim InfoSec News (Aug 12)