A malware virus has paralyzed the computers of Licking County , Ohio , including the county ’ s police force . Hackers are seeking a whole lot of money Attack.Ransom to return control of the network to its rightful owners . The importance of great network security can not be overstated . Officials in Licking County have learned this lesson the hard way , as hackers have installed a computer virus , known as ‘ ransomware , ' that has locked up the local government 's entire network , including that of the police force . Emergency services are still working , however . `` You lose your computers , the world changes a little bit , '' remarked Licking County commissioner Tim Bubb . Apparently , someone in the office downloaded the malware by clicking on a link in a phishing email , or just downloaded the virus from some malicious website . Ransomware is a type of computer virus that encrypts data on a user 's computer , making it inaccessible . The ransomware then displays a message onscreen , ordinarily demanding money Attack.Ransom and providing a sole text input field in which a user must enter an unlock code provided by the malefactor , after the money is paid Attack.Ransom . `` All county offices remain open , but online access and landline telephones are not available for those on the county system . The shutdown is expected to continue at least the rest of the week , '' according to the Newark Advocate news website . According to Bubb , the 911 office , due to budget restrictions , had not shifted to an online-accessible network , and so was working in normal capacity . `` Because they 're working manually , they have made the staff a little more robust , '' he said . He underscored that people can call 911 , and that every emergency call is answered and responded to , using paper , printed maps , dry-erase boards and was dispatching first responders with old-fashioned radios . `` People of Licking County , we believe , are protected as they always are with 911 , '' he added , according to WCMH-TV . The amount of ransom demanded Attack.Ransom by the hackers remains undisclosed , as well as whether the ransom will be paid Attack.Ransom . `` We 're dealing with a criminal element . It 's a crime against the people of Licking County and its government . '' Bubb said , adding that the county government currently is seeking the assistance of cybersecurity experts . According to Sean Grady , director of the Licking County Emergency Management Agency and Regional 911 Center , resolving the situation will take time . `` It 's going to be awhile , '' Grady said . `` Until they identify what it was , they do n't know how to fix it . '' Maybe Licking County officials should turn toward cybersecurity experts in Russia . Dr . Web , a Russia-based antivirus developer and cyber security service provider , has been particularly effective in dealing with ransomware since early versions appeared in Russia some five years ago . The company has a web page dedicated to ransomware observing that using brute force to break modern ransomware encryption would take 107,902,838,054,224,993,544,152,335,601 years , at current processor speeds , and the average ransom sum Attack.Ransom can reach up to 1500 bitcoins ( $ 49,500 currently ) . `` Things can even get rather peculiar . In one situation , a user paid a ransom Attack.Ransom to their attackers , but their attackers could not decipher the files encrypted by their own Trojan.Encoder ( Cryptolocker ) , and advised the user to seek help… from Doctor Web 's technical support service , '' the webpage reads .

What ’ s worse than ransomware that scrambles all your files and demands money Attack.Ransom for the key to unlock them and get them back ? Well , WannaCry certainly added a new dimension to the ransomware danger , because it combined the data-scrambling process with self-spreading computer virus code . As a result , WannaCry could worm its way through your network automatically , potentially leaving you with hundreds or even thousands of scrambled computers in a single attack , even if only one user opened a booby-trapped attachment or downloaded a file from a poisoned website . The crooks behind the SamSam ransomware have also latched onto a rather different approach : instead of trying to reach thousands or tens of thousands of victims around the world with a hard-hitting spam campaign , and squeezing each of them for hundreds or thousands of dollars each , the SamSammers seem to attack one organisation at a time . Indeed , the SamSammers generally keep their hand hidden until they have broken into the network and figured out , using similar techniques to penetration testers , a list of computers they know they can encrypt all at the same time . Then they let fly on all of those identified devices at once , giving them a much higher chance of scrambling at least some computers that are critical to the workflow of your company , Finally , they make a payment demand Attack.Ransom , typically charging a few thousand dollars for each individual computer you want to unlock , but also offering an all-you-can-eat deal of $ 50,000 to decrypt everything . The bad news is that this WannaCrypt “ demanding money Attack.Ransom with menaces ” threat email is very widespread – we ’ ve had people worried about it from all over , which is why we decided to write up this warning . The good news is that these particular crooks don ’ t actually have any malware to back up their threat . Indeed , their claim that “ antivirus software will not be able to detect [ the ] program ” is one of the few truths in this scam , for the simple and fortunate reason that , in this case , there is no program to detect . Just to be clear here : disk wiping malware – think of it as ransomware with no decryption key , so you can ’ t buy your files back from the crooks even if you want to – most certainly exists . So , these WannaCrypt scammers could , in theory , have been telling the truth , giving you just a few hours to hunt down and turn off their attack code before your data was destroyed . In this particular case , however , the whole thing is a fraud , right down to the existence of the malware in the first place .