An amount in Bitcoin ( BTC ) is what the Canadian town of Midland is said to have paid Attack.Ransom to regain access to its hacked computer systems . The ransom Attack.Ransom that the Canadian town of Midland has paid Attack.Ransom to cyber criminals to have its servers unblocked was in the form of Bitcoin ( BTC ) , media source Global News reported last week , quoting a local spokesperson . How much Midland has paid Attack.Ransom in cryptocurrency , however , was not specified . On September 1 , the town in the Ontario province became a victim of a malware attack , as hackers managed to encrypt the information stored on several town systems , leaving them virtually unusable . Right after , Midland got a ransom demand Attack.Ransom to get decryption keys . The town authorities decided a few days later to pay the sum . “ Although not ideal , it is in our best interest to bring the system back online as quickly as possible . The Town had previously secured an insurance policy to cover such circumstances . Decryption efforts are underway , ” a statement on Midland ’ s web site reads .

The Town of Midland ’ s computer systems were hacked over the long weekend . In the early morning hours of Sept 1 , the town became the victim of a cyberattack Attack.Ransom in which the town ’ s network was illegally accessed and infected with ransomware . The malware was able to encrypt a number of town systems rendering them unusable . The town has received a ransom demand Attack.Ransom to decrypt them . Town staff worked quickly to isolate the attacked and activate a cyber incident investigation . According to town staff , the necessary steps are being taken to restore access to the system and files and to try and return operations to normal as quickly as possible . “ Residents can rest assured that we are taking this matter extremely seriously , ” said Mayor Gord McKay . “ We are working closely with cybersecurity experts that specialize in these types of illegal attacks , and we have reported the incident to law enforcement and the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. ” Vital services , such as fire and water and wastewater management , were not impacted as these systems are purposely isolated for security reasons . Ongoing investigations have not found any evidence that information was removed Attack.Databreach from the system or inappropriately accessed Attack.Databreach and cybersecurity experts are working quickly to rule out that possibility . In late April , Wasaga Beach had their computer systems hacked and locked down for several weeks . The town eventually paid Attack.Ransom the hackers three Bitcoins , worth approximately $ 34,000 . However , other costs including loss of productivity , new hardware and consultant fees were estimated at a combined $ 250,000 . Based on the recommendations outlined a recent service delivery review and lessons learned from the cyberattack in Wasaga Beach , Midland had secured an insurance policy for protection in the event of such illegal activities . A strategy to address cybersecurity threats had been developed , which the town was in the process of implementing . “ At the time of the attack the town was in the process of making several improvements to our IT security , ” said Midland chief administrative officer John Skorobohacz . “ Once systems are fully restored , we will continue with those plans and look for additional opportunities to enhance our security based on the guidance of cybersecurity experts . ”

As everyone in TV-land knows , established broadcasters have been losing eyeballs to streaming companies such as Netflix and Amazon and their big-budget “ event ” shows . The upstarts look unstoppable but might an obscure hacker called The Dark Overlord , previously connected to health sector data extortion Attack.Ransom , have spotted an important flaw in the model ? Last week , Netflix found itself on the receiving end of a ransom demand Attack.Ransom from the individual or group , making unconfirmed demands Attack.Ransom in return for not releasing the unseen series 5 of the hit Orange Is the New Black , starring Dascha Polanco ( pictured , at Toronto Pride ) to the web . The company , understandably , refused to play ball and on Saturday reports emerged that a number of episodes had appeared on a popular torrenting service , the name of which it behoves us not to mention for reasons including the high risk of encountering malware . Visiting that resource , we managed to find one file with mention of a “ press release ” that has since been expunged , including from web caches . It reportedly read : We ’ ve decided to release Episodes 2-10 of “ Orange Is The New Black ” Season 5 after many lengthy discussions at the office where alcohol was present . Separately , the group ’ s Twitter feed crowed : And so let it be read that the loathsome giants do too fall . Hello Netflix , we ’ ve arrived . The account threatened the release of material stolen Attack.Databreach from other media companies , including ABC , National Geographic and Fox . Netflix acknowledged the leak Attack.Databreach , which it said was caused by a breach Attack.Databreach at a “ production vendor ” also used by other TV studios . Netflix is cleverly covering its back by pointing the level of integration – and vulnerability – in the TV industry , but there is no question the breach still lands at its door . It ’ s not clear whether the way streaming services process digital content is that different or less secure from established broadcasters but the minute a show exists in a form that can be copied it becomes vulnerable to theft . The BBC found this out to its cost when an episode of the Russian version of Sherlock found its way on to the internet before it was due to be broadcast . And yet , defying cybersecurity breach orthodoxy , perhaps this particular breach isn ’ t so bad after all : on Monday , Netflix ’ s share price even rose . One reason might be that content breaches Attack.Databreach aren ’ t the same as ones involving customer data . The latter will cost the victim organisation money , court time and , in most countries , regulatory investigation . A few people watching a Netflix show earlier than normal seems minor by comparison as long as it doesn ’ t happen too often . Assuming the company patches Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the hole that let its show be thieved , it ’ s not stretching it to suggest The Dark Overlord ’ s leaking Attack.Databreach could even have given Orange Is the New Black an unintended publicity jump . Presumably that ’ s not what The Dark Overlord intended although it ’ s also possible this has always been about self-regarding publicity as much as simple extortion for money Attack.Ransom . If so , Netflix is starting to look like the winner on that front too .

The extortion attempt Attack.Ransom took place on January 11 , the first day some Lloyds Bank customers experienced short-lived problems with accessing their online banking portals . Customers continued to report brief outages in the following two days . On the third day , on Friday , January 13 , Bleeping Computer received two separate tips , via email and Twitter , from two hackers that appeared to know each other . Hacker # 1 sent Bleeping Computer a link to a PasteBin page that contained a copy of an email the group allegedly sent to a high-ranking Lloyds Bank manager . The email , pictured below , contained a ransom demand Attack.Ransom disguised as a `` consultancy fee '' the group was asking Attack.Ransom to reveal Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability `` security issues '' that affected Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Lloyd Bank 's online banking portals . The hackers were asking for Attack.Ransom 100 Bitcoin ( £75,000 / $ 94,000 ) . `` Once paid , the services will be back online , you will get a list of flaws related to both services , along with our disappearance , '' the email reads . A second hacker reached out via Twitter a few hours later and was surprised to find out that his colleague already shared the PasteBin link , confirming they knew each other . Hacker # 2 proceeded to provide a demo that allegedly showed they were behind the Lloyds Bank outages . The demo was specific with how hackers demonstrate they are behind DDoS attacks . Hacker # 2 asked your reporter and other journalists to access Lloyds Bank online portals before his attack , to prove the service was running , and during his attack , to show that he was the one causing the issues .

It is particularly worrying for banks that the disruption lasted three days . Lloyds revealed little at the time , despite a flood of Twitter complaints . But it has emerged that the National Cyber Security Centre is working with the bank on the attack . Despite speculation that a number of banks may have been targeted , it appears that the internet gang concentrated its fire on Lloyds . In the past , denial of service attacks have been perpetrated by customers with a grudge or by blackmailers , but there is no indication from Lloyds that a ransom demand Attack.Ransom was received . At the time , the bank was adamant that the `` vast majority '' of users were able to gain access Attack.Databreach to their accounts and move money around as normal . It 's likely that systems engineers blocked all internet traffic from overseas locations where the attacks seemed to be coming from , halting the disruption at least temporarily before the attackers switched their activity elsewhere . In contrast to the hacking of Tesco Bank in November , in which £2.5m was taken , there is no indication that criminals got their hands on cash in Lloyds bank accounts . However , the new National Cyber Security Centre , part of GCHQ and the UK 's authority on cyber-security , is understood to be working with Lloyds on security after the attack . Lloyds Banking Group issued the following statement : `` We experienced intermittent service issues with internet banking between Wednesday morning and Friday afternoon the week before last and are sorry for any inconvenience caused . `` We had a normal service in place for the vast majority of this period and only a small number of customers experienced problems . We will not speculate on the cause of these intermittent issues .