LICKING COUNTY Officials in Licking County tell 10TV that ransom was demanded Attack.Ransom for an IT hack that impacted the county 's phone and computer systems . A computer virus shut down more than a thousand computers inside the Licking county government center late Tuesday . A county commissioner says that the virus demanded a payment Attack.Ransom in Bitcoin for the county to regain control of their systems . Officials declined to specify the amount of money that was requested Attack.Ransom . The county said its IT department discovered the problem when some files would n't open . As a precaution , it shut the system down and that 's when technicians discovered it was a virus known as ransomware . County business continues , despite the computer shut down , although county employees are having to do much of their work on paper .

Ransomware authors are profiting from the rise of the cryptocurrency -- but it 's also bringing some unexpected problems for them and other dark web operators . The value of bitcoin has soared in recent days : at the one point the cryptocurrency was worth almost $ 19,000 before it dropped back to around $ 16,500 , where it has roughly remained since . It 's almost impossible to predict what will happen next . The price of bitcoin could rise again or it could crash -- but , for now at least , a single unit of the cryptocurrency is worth a significant amount of money . Bitcoin has become the popular payment method for ransomware over the last two years , as the digital currency provides cybercriminals with a means of collecting ransoms Attack.Ransom , while also making it difficult to get the ransom-collectors ' identities , thanks to the level of anonymity it offers . WannaCry Attack.Ransom , the biggest ransomware event of the year , for example , hit Attack.Ransom hundreds of thousands of PCs around the globe , encrypting files and demanding a payment Attack.Ransom of $ 300 in bitcoin for the safe return of what was stored on the machine . In this instance , the ransomware code itself was poorly written and the vast majority of victims were able to restore their systems without giving into the demands Attack.Ransom of the cyber-attackers . However , by the time those behind WannaCry Attack.Ransom had withdrawn funds from the associated Bitcoin wallets -- a full three months after the attack -- it meant the 338 payments Attack.Ransom victims had made were worth around $ 140,000 , which was an increase in value of just under $ 50,000 compared to when the majority of payments were made Attack.Ransom . If those behind WannaCry Attack.Ransom have held onto their illicit investment , they could now be sitting on over $ 1m of bitcoin . But the sudden spike in bitcoin could actually be problematic for some cybercriminals . Before the surge in value , 1 or 0.5 bitcoin was a common ransom demand Attack.Ransom , with the idea that if the fee was low enough -- back then the ransom value worked out at a few hundred dollars -- this would encourage the victim to pay up Attack.Ransom . Even as the value of bitcoin steadily rose during the summer , some attackers were still using the standard amounts of cryptocurrency as their ransom demand Attack.Ransom . For example , Magniber ransomware demanded a payment Attack.Ransom of 0.2 bitcoin ( $ 1,138 in mid-October ) , rising to 0.4 bitcoin ( $ 2,275 in mid-October ) if the payment wasn't received Attack.Ransom within five days . Two months later , 0.2 bitcoin is currently worth $ 3,312 while 0.4 bitcoin is up to $ 6,625 . Many forms of ransomware already ask for the payment Attack.Ransom of a specified amount of dollars to be made in bitcoin . While it pins hopes on victims being able to buy a specific amount of bitcoin and successfully transfer the payment -- which some criminal gangs get around by manning help desks providing advice on buying cryptocurrency -- it 's more likely to result in the victim paying up Attack.Ransom , especially if the figure is just a few hundred dollars . `` I imagine the volatility of bitcoin pricing has been an unexpected problem for cybercriminals . The average ransom demand Attack.Ransom has remained somewhere between $ 300 to $ 1000 , and normally the ransom note will specify a USD amount , '' Andy Norton , director of threat intelligence at Lastline , told ZDNet . It is n't just ransomware distributors who might be faced with the problem of valuing items in pure bitcoin : a Dark Web vendor -- whether they are selling malware , weapons , drugs , or any other illegal item -- might find that setting their price in pure bitcoin will quickly result in them pricing themselves out of the market . With bitcoin prices continuing to rise , sophisticated cybercriminal operators can likely react to it , altering prices on a day-to-day basis to ensure that they 're able to sustain their business . Criminals are trying out alternative pricing models for ransomware already . Some criminals already operate around the idea that they charge Attack.Ransom victims just enough so that they do n't see the ransom Attack.Ransom as too much to pay Attack.Ransom -- and that often depends on the country the victims are in . The Fatboy ransomware payment scheme charges Attack.Ransom victims in poorer countries less than those in richer ones . Meanwhile , those behind Scarab ransomware have started asking Attack.Ransom victims to suggest a payment amount Attack.Ransom for receiving the encryption key for their files .

HACKERS connected with last week ’ s devastating NotPetya cyber attack have offered help — but it comes at a price . HACKERS connected with the ransomware that devastated Attack.Ransom overseas banks , power stations , and even Cadbury factories in Australia last week have issued a new ransom demand Attack.Ransom — and it ’ s for much more money than before . The new ransom note was published in two places on the Dark Web and demanded a payment Attack.Ransom of 100 Bitcoins , or about $ 340,000 , in return for a private security key that could decrypt any file locked by the Petya/Goldeneye malware . The hackers even opened a chat room and offered to decrypt one file for potential buyers as proof that the key would work , though it ’ s not clear whether this was a bluff . The demand Attack.Ransom was a significant increase on the ransomware ’ s initial request Attack.Ransom for just less than $ 400 in Bitcoin when the malware was launched in the Ukraine last Tuesday before rapidly spreading through computer networks worldwide . Bitcoin transactions show its creators were able to access more than $ 13,000 paid Attack.Ransom by victims , however , even though their email address was suspended by its German provider . It ’ s not known whether victims who paid the ransom Attack.Ransom received a security key to unlock their files . The dangerous ransomware affected as many as 16,000 computers in 64 countries , according to security firm Clavister , and crippled the operations of several European companies . Some Australian businesses were also affected through their international connections , including Cadbury factories in Tasmania and Victoria , TNT Express courier services , and the offices of law firm DLA Piper . The demand Attack.Ransom or money came amid growing speculation that the ransomware was not designed to make a profit , but was a form of digital terrorism or industrial espionage . ESET senior research fellow Nick FitzGerald said the Petya malware was designed to kill computers first , and ask for money Attack.Ransom second . “ ( Being ransomware ) was a mechanism to help hide the trail of a gang of cyber terrorists or spies , ” he said . Mr FitzGerald advised victims not to pay any ransom Attack.Ransom as there was very little chance they would be able to unlock their files .

State-owned computers in Colorado are being held for ransom Attack.Ransom . According to the governor ’ s office , some Colorado Department of Transportation computers were first infected with ransomware on Wednesday . Security tools detected the problem . David McCurdy , the chief technology officer in Colorado , said in a statement that staff quarantined the virus to prevent it from spreading . The ransomware demanded a payment Attack.Ransom in bitcoin , Brandi Simmons , a state spokesperson , said . The state tells Next they have never paid Attack.Ransom ransomware criminals in the past , and they have no intention of starting now . The FBI and other security agencies , as well as Governor Hickenlooper ’ s Office of Information Technology , are trying to find the source of the issue - whether it be hacking or human error . Infected servers have been taken offline , Simmons said . She could not say how many computers were affected , but all of the critical systems are still in use . The state is not yet sure what , if any impact , this will have .