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 .

A Vermont business 's computer system was attacked Attack.Ransom by hackers and held for ransom Attack.Ransom . It may sound like a movie plot but ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom like these are on the rise . According to their 2017 Internet Crime report , last year the FBI received 1,783 complaints identified as ransomware . The adjusted losses from the attacks was over $ 2.3 million . An example of a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom is software that downloads to your computer , encrypts your data and then demands money Attack.Ransom to get it back . It 's technological extortion , essentially . And that 's what happened to Wendell 's Furniture in Colchester at the end of last month . `` Our servers crashed and when our IT guy came to take care of the problem , I asked him how the patient was doing and he just got kind of an ashen look on his face and he just shook his head and I knew we were in trouble , '' said Ryan Farrell , the vice president of Wendell 's Furniture . Farrell says in their nearly 20 years of business , they 've never had this type of cybersecurity attack . `` I honestly do n't think I believed it to begin with . It 's something you see in the movies , something you see on TV but it 's never something that I thought would happen to us , especially here in Vermont , '' Farrell said . The company 's sales information from the last 5-10 years was stolen Attack.Databreach , including customers ' names , addresses , phone numbers and email addresses . However , no credit card numbers were part of the breach . `` My message to customers is not to panic , do n't be worried about your information , '' Farrell said . `` Just know that it 's going to take us just a little bit more time to get your sofa to you but we 're open for business . '' Wendell 's was able to recover most of the data but not all of it . They are still missing several months ' worth of data . `` Everything that used to be easy is now really hard , '' Farrell said . A McAfee report shows that ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom are up more than 100 percent in the second quarter of 2018 over that same time frame in 2016 . Duane Dunston teaches cybersecurity at Champlain College and says these attacks can be hard to count . `` It 's not really clear because many organizations may not report it , '' he said . `` It may be easier for them to give them the money and just move on . '' Wendell 's ended up paying thousands of dollars but Dunston says that can have repercussions . `` One of the dangers is that they can come back and ask for more money at a later time , '' he explained . `` There really is no way to know whether they are going to delete the data or whatever they are demanding . '' Dunston says there is lots of public information on how to protect your data but to make sure you are backing it up and updating your security systems . Wendell 's has now reinforced its computer firewalls and replaced parts of its infrastructure that are susceptible to attack . `` We 're getting back on our feet , '' Farrell said . Customers who financed their purchase with Synchrony Financial may have had their account numbers compromised , but according to Wendell 's that threat is low . The business has sent out about 500 letters notifying customers and says they are doing their best to get the word out .

Security researchers report a massive uptick in the number of MongoDB databases hijacked and held for ransom Attack.Ransom . That ’ s sharp increase from last week when 2,000 MongoDB had been hijacked by two or three criminals . A wave attacks was first spotted on Dec. 27 by Victor Gevers , an ethical hacker and founder of GDI Foundation . That ’ s when he said a hacker going by the handle “ Harak1r1 ” was compromising open MongoDB installations , deleting their contents , and leaving behind a ransom note demanding Attack.Ransom 0.2 BTC ( about $ 220 ) . Victims would discover they were hit with the data theft only when they accessed the MongoDB and came across a top database field with the ransom demand Attack.Ransom that read , “ Contact this email with your IP of your server to recover your database ” . Escalation of the attacks happened fast jumping from 200 14 days ago to 2,000 the following week . On Friday the numbers were at 10,000 , and by Monday Merrigan said there was a huge spike in attacks via his Twitter account reporting 27,000 servers compromised representing 93 terabytes of data gone . Since identifying “ Harak1r1 ” as the original attacker , they say more than a dozen additional hackers are now actively targeting MongoDB installations as well . Researchers said that in many cases , data stored in the MongoDB now is simply being destroyed and when victims pay the ransom Attack.Ransom they do not receive their data back . Last week , Gevers told Threatpost attackers were battling among themselves . He said , when one hacker would leave Attack.Ransom a ransom note , another hacker would target the same database , delete the original ransom note and leave their own Attack.Ransom . This further complicates a victim ’ s ability to retrieve data even if a ransom is paid Attack.Ransom , he said .