When two ransomware attacks hit Attack.Ransom the city of Riverside in April and May , it wasn ’ t the first time the city ’ s public safety servers lost data because of a malicious virus , this newspaper found in a review of city records . A check of newspapers across Ohio reveals similar unfortunate targets around the state : Licking County government , the Columbiana County courts and townships in Clinton and Morrow counties were once all ransomware victims . In Clark County , hackers encrypted the Mad River Twp . Fire and EMS servers with ransomware in December . The damage extends across the nation : When a library system in South Carolina faced a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom , patrons couldn ’ t check out or return books . In Richmond , Indiana , the local housing agency fell victim to a $ 8,000 ransom Attack.Ransom . Hackers shut down 2,000 computers at Colorado ’ s transportation department , then attacked again when the agency tried to recover . While the hackers ’ ideal target — and the damage caused — varies , one certainty is that local governments are not exempt from the pain of ransomware , which is malicious software that threatens to block access to data or to publish it unless the infected organization pays a ransom Attack.Ransom . The ransom demands Attack.Ransom are often relatively small compared to an organization ’ s overall budget , but the cost of avoiding payment can be steep , as the city of Atlanta found this year . An attacker demanded Attack.Ransom a $ 50,000 ransom Attack.Ransom to restore the Atlanta ’ s systems , but the city ended up shelling out nearly $ 2.7 million on eight emergency contracts in an attempt to fix the problem . Experts encouraged all computer users to follow one rule to avoid ransomware ’ s predilection for data destruction . “ Real simple , ” said John Moore , a computer technician in Trotwood . “ Back up your data. ” Prior attack uncovered Hackers hit Riverside ’ s police computers with ransomware several years before the latest incidents , emails obtained by the newspaper show . The attack — previously unknown to the public before this story — occurred under a prior city manager and also saw the police department lose documents , according to an email from Councilman Steve Fullenkamp to other city leaders . Sometimes , as was the case with at least one of Riverside ’ s recent attacks , the virus can be downloaded by clicking on an infected email . Organizations often don ’ t learn they have been infected until they can ’ t access their data or until computer messages appear demanding a ransom payment Attack.Ransom in exchange for a decryption key , according to the FBI ’ s website . The first of the recent attacks against Riverside erased about 10 months of police records , the records show . The second attack wiped just several hours of data , because the city had backed-up the data .

Ransomware will continue to dominate the cyber security landscape , with a new report from security specialists ESET forecasting the ‘ year of ransomware ’ will continue into 2017 . ESET ’ s Trends 2017 : Security held ransom presents key cyber security topics of relevance for both businesses and consumers about the latest threats taking shape in the new year and identifies ransomware as a key threat to protect against . The report suggests ransomware will continue en masse . “ We anticipate a new trend on the horizon : The Ransomware of Things or RoT , i.e . the possibility of cybercriminals “ hijacking ” devices such as home security cameras and then demanding a ransom payment Attack.Ransom in exchange for restoring control to the user , ” ESET says in the report . Nick FitzGerald , senior research fellow at ESET agrees that ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom will continue to increase in ANZ throughout 2017 . “ Ransomware was a serious security problem throughout 2016 . ESET takes no joy from having been on the right side of that prediction , nor in predicting that ongoing ransomware developments and ensuing success for the cybercriminals behind it seems likely to continue apace into 2017 , ” FitzGerald says . “ As wealthy markets , Australia and New Zealand are often targeted in ransomware campaigns Attack.Ransom , and online users should continue to be especially wary of unsolicited email with attachments or URLs , and ‘ too good to be true ’ offers , ” he says . According to FitzGerald , with the cost of cybercrime rising more than 200 % over the past five years alone , ESET assembled the report to not only help businesses and individuals understand the advanced tactics and techniques employed by criminal hackers , but to safeguard against threats in the coming year . “ Considering the adverse reputational as well as financial impacts which result from cybercrime , it is critical that all users are aware of the types of attacks that can affect them , ” he says . “ The report also highlights the importance of continual education as one of the essential components for staying safe online and offers its readers simple steps for raising one ’ s level of awareness ” .

The malware asks for Attack.Ransom 222 Bitcoin but will not honor promises to decrypt files after payment is made Attack.Ransom . The cost of ransomware reached close to $ 1 billion in 2016 , and it 's not hard to see why . The malware family , which targets everything from Windows to Mac machines , executes procedures to encrypt files and disks before demanding a ransom payment Attack.Ransom in return for keys to decrypt and unlock compromised machines . However , it is not only the general public which is being targeted with everything from hospitals to schools and businesses now in the firing line . As the prospect of losing valuable content on computer systems or facing widespread disruption to business operations is often too much to bear , many will simply give up and give in , paying the fee and unfortunately contributing to the cybercriminal 's operations . However , paying up Attack.Ransom does not guarantee that victims will get their files back , no matter how low or high the payment demand Attack.Ransom . This week , ESET researchers discovered that a Linux variant of KillDisk , linked to attacks against core infrastructure system in Ukraine in 2015 , is now being used against fresh Ukrainian financial targets . The ransomware demands Attack.Ransom a huge amount of money , but there is no underwritten protocol for decryption keys to be released once payment is made Attack.Ransom . Distributed through phishing campaigns Attack.Phishing targeting both Windows and Linux , once downloaded , the ransomware throws up a holding page referring to the Mr . Robot television show while files are being encrypted , the research team said in a blog post . Unsurprisingly , no-one has paid up yet , nor should they , ever . `` This new variant renders Linux machines unbootable , after encrypting files and requesting a large ransom Attack.Ransom , '' ESET says . `` But even if victims do reach deep into their pockets , the probability that the attackers will decrypt the files is small . '' Files are encrypted using Triple-DES applied to 4096-byte file blocks and each file is encrypted using different sets of 64-bit encryption keys . However , the ransomware does not store encryption keys either locally or through a command-and-control ( C & C ) server , which means that affected systems after reboot are unbootable , and paying the ransom Attack.Ransom is pointless . `` It is important to note -- that paying the ransom demanded Attack.Ransom for the recovery of encrypted files is a waste of time and money , '' the team said . `` Let us emphasize that -- the cyber criminals behind this KillDisk variant can not supply their victims with the decryption keys to recover their files , despite those victims paying Attack.Ransom the extremely large sum demanded Attack.Ransom by this ransomware . '' There is a weakness in the encryption used by the ransomware , which makes recovery possible -- at least when it comes to Linux infections . Earlier this week , researchers at Check Point revealed the latest exploits of the GoldenEye ransomware , a strain of malware which is targeting German HR companies . The malware is contained in phishing emails which appear to be from job applicants , and once downloaded and installed , demands Attack.Ransom $ 1000 in Bitcoin to unlock infected systems