part of the ransomAttack.Ransomto hackers who took over the town 's computer system earlier this month . The computer ransomware attackAttack.Ransomstarted Sunday , April 29th . Staff discovered they could n't access town data when the arrived on Monday . CAO George Vadeboncoeur says some of the data has been retrieved , but he 's not saying how much money the town has had to payAttack.Ransomthe hackers . He says the town does n't actually know who the ransomware virus attackers are . He does say they appear to be in a time zone six hours different from ours , and English is not their first language . Vadeboncoeur says town council will get a report on the ransom paidAttack.Ransomat a meeting once the situation is resolved . He says he does n't know yet when that will be , but he says some of the town 's data has now been retrieved .
Ransomware , a special version of trojan that encrypts files , has become a new and tremendously growing type of cybercrime . The 2016 Ransomware Report released by 360 Security Center lately presents that : – 4.9 million computers were attacked in China – 56,000 ransomware infections worldwide only in March 2016 – $ 1 billion dollar source of income for cyber criminals estimated by FBI – Almost half of organizations have been hit with ransomware In January 2016 , three Indian banks ’ and a pharmaceutical company ’ s computer systems were infectedAttack.Ransomby ransomware . The attacker asked forAttack.Ransom1 bitcoin ( about $ 905 ) for each infected computer , and then used unprotected desktop interface to infect other connected computers from remote . These corps lost several million dollars due to the huge number of infected computers . February 5th 2016 , Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center paidAttack.Ransoma $ 17,000 ransomAttack.Ransomin bitcoin to a hacker who seized control of the hospital ’ s computer systems and would give back access only when the money was paidAttack.Ransom. Two hospitals in Ottawa and in Ontario were attacked by ransomware later on . In February 2016 , several schools ’ computer systems were attacked by ransomware . The hacker took control of the intranet and servers , and asked forAttack.Ransom20 bitcoin . These school ended up payingAttack.Ransomthe anonymous hacker $ 8,500 to get their IT systems back . In the mid-February , a new ransomware “ Locky ” started to spread out via email . 7 out of 10 malicious email attachments delivered Locky in Q2 2016 . Once users activated the file attached in the email , their files were encrypted and had to payAttack.Ransomthe distributor a certain ransomAttack.Ransomto decrypt these files . May 2016 , a series of ransomware attacks on the House of Representatives have led US congress to ban using Yahoo Mail and Google hosted-apps , and warned their members about being caution of Internet security . In October , 2016 , 277 ransomware attacksAttack.Ransomwere reported to Government Computer Emergency Response Team in Hong Kong , China . Most of the malware were hidden in email attachments and disguised asAttack.Phishingbills or receipts to trickAttack.Phishingusers to click . The victims included the Marine Department of Hong Kong and Deloitte , one of the biggest accounting firms in the world . In November 2016 , other than emails , Locky began to transmit through social networks such as Facebook , LinkedIn with images contained malicious application . The file could be automatically downloaded while users were browsing , and installed once users clicked to check . November 2016 , San Francisco public transportation system Muni was hacked and requested forAttack.Ransoma $ 73,000 ransomAttack.Ransomin bitcoin to get back encrypted data . SFMTA ( The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority ) refused to payAttack.Ransomthe ransomAttack.Ransomand shut down the fair system . We can see that ransomeware is terrifying and collecting money illegally around the world . However , it ’ s almost impossible to decrypt the infected files by yourself , even for people with high information technology skills .