https://www.infosecnews.org/riviera-beach-florida-city-council-agrees-to-pay-cybercriminals-nearly-600k-malware-ransom
By William Knowles @c4i
Senior Editor
InfoSec News
June 20, 2019
Riviera Beach Florida just became the newest member of a club no city or
local government hopes to join. Taking only a few minutes and by a
unanimous vote of 5-0 on Monday night the board authorized Riviera Beach’s
insurer to pay 65 bitcoins valued at approximately $592K USD. Paying off a
malware ransom that has crippled all of the city’s information technology
infrastructure since May 29th after someone in the police department
clicked on a malicious email.
But unlike the 2000 action flick Proof of Life, there’s no guarantee
paying the ransom will unlock the affected computer network and all the
encrypted files, and while its 2019, Its not likely Cyber-Insurance
companies have former 22nd SAS and 75th Ranger Battalion types running
around the world with machine guns blazing for a successful hostage rescue
of a malware-infected network.
The council held a special meeting earlier in June to authorize $941,000
for 310 new desktop and 90 laptop computers and other hardware. Much of
the existing hardware was a half-dozen-years old and vulnerable to another
malware attack, so it was time to replace it anyway, Riviera Beach
Councilwoman Julie Botel said.
[...]
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