Author Topic: Florida city agrees to pay nearly $600,000 after ransomware attack  (Read 1439 times)

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Online mystery-ak

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Florida city agrees to pay nearly $600,000 after ransomware attack
By Marina Pitofsky - 06/20/19 09:21 AM EDT

A Florida city has agreed to pay hackers who incapacitated their computer system nearly $600,000 in ransom.

The Riviera Beach, Fla., City Council voted unanimously Monday night to have its insurer pay a hacker’s demand for 65 bitcoin, valued at $592,000. The city will pay an addition $25,000 to cover its deductible, according to The Palm Beach Post.

The attack began on May 29, when a police department employee in Riviera Beach, a city of 35,000 people north of West Palm Beach, downloaded an infected email attachment, The Palm Beach Post reported.

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https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/449479-florida-city-agrees-to-pay-nearly-600000-after-ransomware
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Online rustynail

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Re: Florida city agrees to pay nearly $600,000 after ransomware attack
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2019, 02:34:52 pm »
Is this a wise move?  I want to think it is not.

Offline Sighlass

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Re: Florida city agrees to pay nearly $600,000 after ransomware attack
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2019, 05:13:07 am »
Is this a wise move?  I want to think it is not.

Agree, all it does is embolden the hackers to attack more folks when there is big payoffs.
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Offline InHeavenThereIsNoBeer

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Re: Florida city agrees to pay nearly $600,000 after ransomware attack
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2019, 05:59:42 am »
Agree, all it does is embolden the hackers to attack more folks when there is big payoffs.

Actually, it might make the insurance company think twice about their premiums as well.

I've worked with a number of FL local governments on ways to put themselves in a position to recover from such an attack without paying ransom (or just recover from anything), though I've never worked with one so small.  The $25K deductible is roughly enough to cover the initial investment for a small local government, the $600K payment would be enough to fund at least a majority for all but our largest counties.

IDK what the city paid for their insurance, but my gut says the insurance company screwed the pooch on this one.

Unless, of course, the insurance company is behind the attack.  [Mostly sarcasm, possibly because I'm really ticked with my insurance "agent" at the moment]
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Offline Victoria33

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Re: Florida city agrees to pay nearly $600,000 after ransomware attack
« Reply #4 on: June 26, 2019, 06:05:44 am »
@mystery-ak
@Sighlass
@Cyber Liberty
@roamer_1

A story: sometimes electric wires/connections/electronic gadgets/water can cause a fake attack on communication - and it can be embarrassing, to wit:
1.  I am in my home office working on a psychological report.
2.  Husband, unknown to me, gets home from work in another part of the house.
3.  Phone rings - man on phone says, "What is your emergency?"  I said I did not have an emergency.  He said, "Yes you have, you rang 911."  I said no, I didn't.  He said, "Yes you did."  He finally believed me, I had no emergency, did not ring 911, except I did.  He hangs up.
4.  Man calls back, asked if my husband was at home.  I got up, looked in den, there was husband, told man he is home.
5.  Man says, "Tell your husband to stay off the phone, he was on the phone, telling dirty jokes to someone, and his voice is going through our communication system and every loud speaker in police, mail room, emergency agencies, fire dept., is hearing these dirty jokes."  He said, "Stay off your phone, until I call you."  I say okay.
6.  I go in den, ask husband who he was talking to on the phone.  He said his daughter (she was in her 30s).  I tell him every joke he told was broadcast through speakers to police, fire, emergency, mail room. He laughed and laughed.
7.  Finally get a call from the man again.  He said rain water had gotten in communications wires underground not far from our house and put our phone communications through to them.  Repairmen dug down, found it and fixed it.  He said we could use the phone again.
8.  Husbands.  I loved him; he died in 1989 of cancer.

Offline Drago

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Re: Florida city agrees to pay nearly $600,000 after ransomware attack
« Reply #5 on: June 26, 2019, 08:16:15 am »
The city picked a good time to pay the ransom....Bitcoin up 30% since they paid the ransom. (Am not condoning ransom payments...just an interesting twist).

https://coinmarketcap.com