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A Florida city paid $600,000 in ransom to hackers who seized its computer system, the latest in a large number of attacks globally aimed at wringing money from governments and businesses.
The Riviera Beach City Council voted with unanimity this week to pay the hackers’ demands, believing the Palm Beach suburb had no option if it sought to recover its records, which were encrypted by the hackers.
The internal IT staff has been working with security counsellors to reinstate the operations, but they said the only way to decrypt the information was to pay the ransom.
“The Riviera Beach City Council voted unanimously this week to pay the hackers’ demands, believing the Palm Beach suburb had no choice if it wanted to retrieve its records, which the hackers encrypted.” reported the Associated Press. “Spokeswoman Rose Anne Brown said Wednesday that the city of 35,000 residents has been working with outside security consultants, who recommended the ransom be paid.”
The ransomware quickly spread inside the Riviera Beach City infrastructure, triggering numerous problems. The email system was incapacitated, employees and sellers were paid by check rather than direct deposit, the communications went down, 911 dispatchers being incapable of accepting calls even if the service continues to work.
On Monday, city officials participating to a rapid meeting unanimously voted to use the city’s insurance to pay a ransom of 65 bitcoins (~$603,000).
“The payment is being covered by insurance.” continues the AP. “The FBI on its website says it “doesn’t support” paying off hackers, but Riviera Beach isn’t alone: many government agencies and businesses do.”
