Lost evidence includes all body camera video , some in-car video , some in-house surveillance video , some photographs , and all Microsoft Office documents . Data from that period backed up on DVDs and CDs remained intact . While archived data has its importance , more worrying is that the department lost data from ongoing investigations . In an interview with WFAA , who broke the story , Stephen Barlag , Cockrell Hill 's police chief , said that none of the lost data was critical . The department also notified the Dallas County District Attorney 's office of the incident . The department says the infection was discovered on December 12 , last year , and the crooks asked for Attack.Ransom a $ 4,000 ransom fee Attack.Ransom to unlock the files . After consulting with the FBI 's cyber-crime unit , the department decided to wipe their data server and reinstall everything . Data could not be recovered from backups , as the backup procedure kicked in shortly after the ransomware took root , and backed up copies of the encrypted files . According to the department 's press release , the Cockrell Hill police IT staff said they were infected with the OSIRIS ransomware . It 's quite possible that the department 's server was infected with the Locky ransomware , which a few days prior had come out with a new version that appended the `` .osiris '' extension at the end of encrypted files . The press release says the infection took place after an officer opened a spam message from a cloned ( spoofed ) email address imitating Attack.Phishing a department issued email address . The infection did not spread to other computers because the server was taken offline and disconnected from the local network as soon as staff discovered the ransom demand Attack.Ransom . The department also said there was no evidence of data exfiltration Attack.Databreach to a remote server .

It is suspected that Ukrainian-based hackers took the Cockrell Hill Police Department 's server for ransom Attack.Ransom last month , resulting in the loss of video evidence . The police chief decided not to pay the ransom Attack.Ransom and instead had the server wiped , according to WFAA in Texas . The television station reported that the police chief does not believe this was a targeted attack by terrorists . Cybercriminals are thought to have casted a wide net with spam and an unsuspecting police department employee invited the malware in upon clicking on a link . According to Acronis , the latest update of the Locky crypto-ransomware variant , Osiris , is behind this attack . Acronis ’ New Generation technology that proactively prevents zero-day infections , discovered this new mutation . It currently bypasses all ( to our best knowledge ) antivirus/anti-malware software , including Windows Defender . [ Learn about top security certifications : Who they 're for , what they cost , and which you need . Accoridng to a press release , once the Cockrell Hill Police Department became aware that files on the server had been corrupted Attack.Databreach by a computer virus , they immediately disconnected the server and all computers from the internet and all state database systems and were able to contain the virus . The virus had been introduced onto the network from a spam email that had come from Attack.Phishing a cloned email address imitating Attack.Phishing a department issued email address . An internet webpage showed that if the police department paid $ 4,000 in Bitcoin , then the police department 's online contents would be released . The FBI Cybercrimes unit recommended that the police department isolate and wipe the virus from the servers . This virus affected all Microsoft Office Suite documents , such as Word documents and Excel files . In addition , all body camera video , some in-car video , some in-house surveillance video , and some photographs that were stored on the server were corrupted Attack.Databreach and were lost , the police department stated in its release . Files that were affected did go back to 2009 , however hard copies of all documents and the vast majority of the videos and photographs are still in the possession of the Police Department on CD or DVD . It is unknown at this time how many total digital copies of documents were lost , as it is also unknown how many videos or photographs that could have assisted newer cases will not be available , although the number of affected prosecutions should remain relatively small , the press release said