Second US town (Lake City, FL) pays up $460,000 to ransomware hackers [View all]

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

Second US town pays up to ransomware hackers

26 June 2019

A town in Florida has paid $500,000 (£394,000) to hackers after a ransomware attack.

The total paid by Florida municipalities over ransomware in the last two weeks now stands at $1.1m.

Officials in Lake City voted to pay hackers in Bitcoin after suffering downed computer systems for two weeks.

Coastal suburb Riviera Beach recently paid hackers $600,000 following a similar incident that locked municipal staff out of important files.

According to reports, IT staff in Lake City disconnected staff computers within minutes of the attack starting, but it was too late.

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48770128

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Source: New York Times

Another Hacked Florida City Pays a Ransom, This Time for $460,000

By Patricia Mazzei
June 27, 2019

MIAMI — Even the phones went down in the government of Lake City, Fla., after hackers launched a cyberattack that disabled the city’s computer systems.

For several days after computer systems were paralyzed by a ransomware attack, the staff of the small North Florida town worked with the F.B.I. and an outside security consultant to restore phone lines, email and online utility payments. But in the end, city leaders called an emergency meeting this week and reluctantly approved paying the hackers the ransom they demanded: 42 Bitcoin, or about $460,000.

It was the second city to agree to a large ransom in two weeks. Riviera Beach, in Florida’s Palm Beach County, signed off on an extraordinary $600,000 payment last week, also in Bitcoin, a cybercurrency that is difficult to trace.

As in Riviera Beach, the brunt of Lake City’s ransom will be paid by insurance. Only $10,000 will come out of the city’s coffers.

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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/27/us/lake-city-florida-ransom-cyberattack.html