Florida: Municipal Ransomware Attack Costs Riviera Beach $600K

Jun 20, 2019 | Company News

Riviera Beach officials voted to pay 65 Bitcoins worth $600,000 to the hacker who seized the city's computer systems and encrypted their data.

The city originally announced the attack the day it was discovered but initially downplayed the attack, stating that it had only affected a few city services that issue marriage licenses and birth certificates.

However, without access to their computer system, local police and fire departments were forced to write down hundreds of daily 911 calls on paper. 

  • 170 county, city or state systems have been attacked since 2013.
  • At least 45 of those attacks were on police and sheriff’s offices.

According to cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, at least 170 county, city or state government systems have been attacked since 2019, including at 45 police and sheriff’s offices.

Number of Public Sector Attacks this Year

“So far this year, there have been more than 20 public-sector attacks, which does not take into account those that often aren’t reported until months or years later. Just last month, Baltimore was infected with ransomware, forcing the city to quarantine its networks and provide most of its municipal services manually.
Faith Karimi

CNN

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Read the full article on CNN.com

Florida city to pay $600k ransom to hacker who seized computer system weeks ago.
June 20, 2019 – 3:00am ET

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How a Secret U.S. Cyberweapon Backfired

Hackers have seized government computer systems using the National Security Agency’s own hacking tool.

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