Ransomware is costing Attack.Ransom UK companies a whopping £346 million every year , despite Britain being labelled ‘ the most resolute ’ country for dealing with the cyber attacks Attack.Ransom . In fact , more than 40 per cent of mid-large UK business suffered on average five ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom during the last year , according to research by Vanson Bourne . However , 92 per cent of security professionals feel confident in their ability to combat ransomware in the future . And there was more good news for British . The survey found the UK to be the most resolute , both in refusing to pay ransom demands Attack.Ransom , as well as the most effective in combatting them . They experience the fewest number of attacks : 40 per cent , versus 70 per cent in Germany , 59 per cent in France and 55 per cent in the USA and enjoy a 43 per cent success rate in successfully defending against attacks . The research , commissioned by SentinelOne , reveals that ransomware is costing Attack.Ransom individual businesses around the globe an average of £591,238 per annum . The research all concluded that the number of companies ravaged by ransomware is on the rise . Results show that the overall percentage of companies experiencing ransomware has increased from 48 per cent in 2016 to 56 per cent in 2018 , however the average number per year has fallen from six to five attacks . The amount of time spent decrypting ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom has also increased from 33 to 40 man-hours . The study also reveals that employees are considered the major culprits responsible for introducing the malware into the business . This was further supported by the fact that phishing Attack.Phishing , which seeks to socially engineer employees , was the top attack vector by which ransomware infiltrated the business in 69 per cent of instances . Migo Kedem , director of Product Management at SentinelOne said : “ It ’ s staggering to see the cost to British businesses of £346 million . This figure shows that businesses are becoming increasingly aware that it ’ s not just the ransom demand Attack.Ransom , but rather the ancillary costs of downtime , staff time , lost business , as well as the data recovery costs and reputational damage that are the biggest concern to British businesses. ” He added : “ On a more positive note , it ’ s good to see CISOs feeling more bullish about their ability to tackle ransomware using the latest behavioural AI-based end-point technology . It ’ s also encouraging to see a clear movement against companies caving in to ransomware demands Attack.Ransom , preferring instead to take more proactive measure such as back-ups and patching Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability of vulnerable systems . However , the volume of ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom is still increasing and their speed , scale , sophistication and success in evading detection with the growth in file-less and memory-based malware , explains why ransomware will continue to be a major threat to CISOs in 2018 and beyond . ”

Researchers found they were able to infect robots with ransomware ; in the real world , such attacks could be highly damaging to businesses if robotic security is n't addressed . Ransomware has long been a headache for PC and smartphone users , but in the future , it could be robots that stop working unless a ransom is paid Attack.Ransom . Researchers at security company IOActive have shown how they managed to hack the humanoid NAO robot made by Softbank and infect one with custom-built ransomware . The researchers said the same attack would work on the Pepper robot too . After the infection , the robot is shown insulting its audience and demanding Attack.Ransom to be 'fed ' bitcoin cryptocurrency in order to restore systems back to normal . While a tiny robot making threats might initially seem amusing -- if a little creepy -- the proof-of-concept attack demonstrates the risks associated with a lack of security in robots and how organisations that employ robots could suddenly see parts of their business grind to a halt should they become a victim of ransomware . `` In order to get a business owner to pay a ransom Attack.Ransom to a hacker , you could make robots stop working . And , because the robots are directly tied to production and services , when they stop working they 'll cause a financial problem for the owner , losing money every second they 're not working , '' Cesar Cerrudo , CTO at IOActive Labs , told ZDNet . Taking what was learned in previous studies into the security vulnerabilities of robots , researchers were able to inject and run code in Pepper and NAO robots and take complete control of the systems , giving them the option to shut the robot down or modify its actions . The researchers said it was possible for an attacker with access to the Wi-Fi network the robot is running on to inject malicious code into the machine . `` The attack can come from a computer or other device that is connected to internet , so a computer gets hacked , and from there , the robot can be hacked since it 's in the same network as the hacked computer , '' said Cerrudo , who conducted the research alongside Lucas Apa , Senior Security Consultant at IOActive . Unlike computers , robots do n't yet store vast amounts of valuable information that the user might be willing to pay a ransom Attack.Ransom to retrieve . But , as companies often do n't have backups to restore systems from , if a robot becomes infected with ransomware , it 's almost impossible for the user to restore it to normal by themselves . If the alternative for a victim of robot ransomware is waiting for a technician to come to fix the robot -- or even losing access it to weeks if it needs to be returned to the manufacturer -- a business owner might view giving into the ransom demand Attack.Ransom as a lesser evil . `` If it 's one robot then it could take less time , but if there are dozens or more , every second they are n't working , the business is losing money . Keeping this in mind , shipping lots of robots takes a lot of time , so the financial impact is bigger when you have a computer compromised with ransomware , '' said Cerrudo . While the robot ransomware infections have been done for the purposes of research -- and presented at the 2018 Kaspersky Security Analyst Summit in Cancun , Mexico -- IOActive warn that if security in robotics is n't properly addressed now , there could be big risks in the near future . `` While we do n't see robots every day , they 're going mainstream soon , businesses worldwide are deploying robots for different services . If we do n't start making robots secure now , if more get out there which are easily hacked , there are very serious consequences , '' said Cerrudo . As with security vulnerabilities the Internet of Things and other products , the solution to this issue is for robotics manufacturers to think about cybersecurity at every step of the manufacturing process from day one . IOActive informed Softbank about the research in January but Cerrudo said : `` We do n't know if they [ Softbank ] are going to fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the issues and when , or even if they can fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the issues with the current design . '' Responding to the IOActive research , a Softbank spokesperson told ZDNet : `` We will continue to improve our security measures on Pepper , so we can counter any risks we may face . ''

DDoS extortionists have already pounced on the Memcached DDoS attack vector in attempts to extract payments Attack.Ransom from attacked companies . Akamai revealed earlier today that it detected DDoS attacks executed via Memcached servers that were different from others . Instead of blasting targets with UDP packets containing random data , one group of attackers is leaving short messages inside these packets . This one group is asking Attack.Ransom victims to pay Attack.Ransom 50 Monero —around $ 17,000— to a Monero address . The group does n't say it will stop the attack but only implies it . Such attacks have first appeared in 2015 and were initially referred to as DDoS-for-Bitcoin after the DD4BTC group that pioneered such tactics . The group would send emails to various companies , threatening to launch DDoS attacks unless they paid a ransom fee Attack.Ransom . Even if the group 's members were arrested , other factions appeared in subsequent years , using unique names such as Armada Collective or XMR Squad , but also mimicking hacker groups such as Anonymous or LulzSec . The tactic , now known as ransom DDoS (RDoS) Attack.Ransom , has become quite popular among cybercriminal groups , and there have been too many RDoS campaigns Attack.Ransom to remember in the past years . In most past cases , attackers did n't have the firepower to launch DDoS attacks if victims ignored the ransom demand Attack.Ransom . But the Memcached-based DDoS extortions Attack.Ransom are different . Attackers clearly have the DDoS cannon to take down companies , mainly due to the large number of unsecured Memcached servers they can abuse to launch these attacks Attack.Ransom . Victims are also more likely to pay Attack.Ransom , seeing that they 're under a heavy attack Attack.Ransom and this is n't just an empty threat . But according to Daniel Smith , a Radware security researcher who spoke with Bleeping Computer , paying the Monero ransom Attack.Ransom wo n't help companies at all.That 's because attackers have used the same Monero address for multiple DDoS attacks against different targets . Here 's the same Monero address from the Akamai attacks , but spotted by a different security researcher . Attackers would n't have the ability to tell which of the multiple targets they attacked paid the ransom Attack.Ransom . The general consensus is that this group is using a carpet bombing technique , hitting Attack.Ransom as many targets as possible for short bursts , hoping to scare one into paying Attack.Ransom . `` Multiple targets are sent the same message in hopes that any of them will pay the ransom Attack.Ransom , '' Akamai said in a report today , echoing Smith 's recommendation not to pay the ransom Attack.Ransom . `` There is no sign to suggest that they are actively tracking the targets reaction to the attacks , no contact information , no detailed instructions on payment notification , '' Akamai added . `` If a victim were to deposit the requested amount Attack.Ransom into the wallet , we doubt the attackers would even know which victim the payment Attack.Ransom originated from , let alone stop their attacks as a result . ''

Federal officials , Microsoft and Cisco are working with the city of Atlanta to resolve the attack Attack.Ransom , but Atlanta 's mayor wo n't say if the city paid Attack.Ransom the $ 51,000 ransom Attack.Ransom . As of Saturday , Atlanta officials and federal partners were still “ working around the clock ” to resolve the ransomware attack Attack.Ransom on city computers that occurred around 5 a.m. on Thursday , March 22 , and encrypted some financial and person data . As @ Cityofatlanta officials & federal partners continue working around the clock to resolve issues related to the ransomware cyber attack Attack.Ransom launched against the City , solid waste & other DPW operations are not impacted . — ATLPublicWorks ( @ ATLPublicWorks ) March 24 , 2018 On Thursday , the official investigation included “ the FBI , U.S. Department of Homeland Security , Cisco cybersecurity officials and Microsoft to determine what information has been accessed Attack.Databreach and how to resolve the situation. ” A city employee sent WXIA a screenshot of the ransom demand Attack.Ransom , which included a pay-per-computer option Attack.Ransom of $ 6,800 or an option to pay Attack.Ransom $ 51,000 to unlock the entire system . CBS 46 reported that the ransom demand Attack.Ransom and instruction said : Send .8 bitcoins for each computer or 6 bitcoins for all of the computers . ( That 's the equivalent of around $ 51,000 . ) After the .8 bitcoin is sent , leave a comment on their website with the provided host name . They ’ ll then reply to the comment with a decryption software . When you run that , all of the encrypted files will be recovered . On Friday , March 23 , city employees were handed a printed notice as they walked through the front doors . They were told not to turn on their computers until the issue was resolved . Officials were still unsure who was behind the attack . Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms advised city employees and customers to monitor their personal information , although there was no evidence to show customer or employee data was compromised Attack.Databreach . Mayor Bottoms clarified what services had not been impacted and were still available to residents and which ones had been impacted . Mayor Bottoms will not say if Atlanta intends to pay the ransom demand Attack.Ransom , saying , “ We will be looking for guidance from , specifically , our federal partners on how to best navigate the best course of action. ” During a press conference , Bottoms said , “ What we want to make sure of is that we aren ’ t putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound. ” She then turned the press conference over to Richard Cox , the City of Atlanta 's chief operations officer ; the poor dude is brand new to serving as Atlanta ’ s COO . He confirmed the existence of the ransom demand Attack.Ransom but would not reveal the contents .

Federal officials , Microsoft and Cisco are working with the city of Atlanta to resolve the attack Attack.Ransom , but Atlanta 's mayor wo n't say if the city paid Attack.Ransom the $ 51,000 ransom Attack.Ransom . As of Saturday , Atlanta officials and federal partners were still “ working around the clock ” to resolve the ransomware attack Attack.Ransom on city computers that occurred around 5 a.m. on Thursday , March 22 , and encrypted some financial and person data . As @ Cityofatlanta officials & federal partners continue working around the clock to resolve issues related to the ransomware cyber attack Attack.Ransom launched against the City , solid waste & other DPW operations are not impacted . — ATLPublicWorks ( @ ATLPublicWorks ) March 24 , 2018 On Thursday , the official investigation included “ the FBI , U.S. Department of Homeland Security , Cisco cybersecurity officials and Microsoft to determine what information has been accessed Attack.Databreach and how to resolve the situation. ” A city employee sent WXIA a screenshot of the ransom demand Attack.Ransom , which included a pay-per-computer option Attack.Ransom of $ 6,800 or an option to pay Attack.Ransom $ 51,000 to unlock the entire system . CBS 46 reported that the ransom demand Attack.Ransom and instruction said : Send .8 bitcoins for each computer or 6 bitcoins for all of the computers . ( That 's the equivalent of around $ 51,000 . ) After the .8 bitcoin is sent , leave a comment on their website with the provided host name . They ’ ll then reply to the comment with a decryption software . When you run that , all of the encrypted files will be recovered . On Friday , March 23 , city employees were handed a printed notice as they walked through the front doors . They were told not to turn on their computers until the issue was resolved . Officials were still unsure who was behind the attack . Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms advised city employees and customers to monitor their personal information , although there was no evidence to show customer or employee data was compromised Attack.Databreach . Mayor Bottoms clarified what services had not been impacted and were still available to residents and which ones had been impacted . Mayor Bottoms will not say if Atlanta intends to pay the ransom demand Attack.Ransom , saying , “ We will be looking for guidance from , specifically , our federal partners on how to best navigate the best course of action. ” During a press conference , Bottoms said , “ What we want to make sure of is that we aren ’ t putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound. ” She then turned the press conference over to Richard Cox , the City of Atlanta 's chief operations officer ; the poor dude is brand new to serving as Atlanta ’ s COO . He confirmed the existence of the ransom demand Attack.Ransom but would not reveal the contents .

Federal officials , Microsoft and Cisco are working with the city of Atlanta to resolve the attack Attack.Ransom , but Atlanta 's mayor wo n't say if the city paid Attack.Ransom the $ 51,000 ransom Attack.Ransom . As of Saturday , Atlanta officials and federal partners were still “ working around the clock ” to resolve the ransomware attack Attack.Ransom on city computers that occurred around 5 a.m. on Thursday , March 22 , and encrypted some financial and person data . As @ Cityofatlanta officials & federal partners continue working around the clock to resolve issues related to the ransomware cyber attack Attack.Ransom launched against the City , solid waste & other DPW operations are not impacted . — ATLPublicWorks ( @ ATLPublicWorks ) March 24 , 2018 On Thursday , the official investigation included “ the FBI , U.S. Department of Homeland Security , Cisco cybersecurity officials and Microsoft to determine what information has been accessed Attack.Databreach and how to resolve the situation. ” A city employee sent WXIA a screenshot of the ransom demand Attack.Ransom , which included a pay-per-computer option Attack.Ransom of $ 6,800 or an option to pay Attack.Ransom $ 51,000 to unlock the entire system . CBS 46 reported that the ransom demand Attack.Ransom and instruction said : Send .8 bitcoins for each computer or 6 bitcoins for all of the computers . ( That 's the equivalent of around $ 51,000 . ) After the .8 bitcoin is sent , leave a comment on their website with the provided host name . They ’ ll then reply to the comment with a decryption software . When you run that , all of the encrypted files will be recovered . On Friday , March 23 , city employees were handed a printed notice as they walked through the front doors . They were told not to turn on their computers until the issue was resolved . Officials were still unsure who was behind the attack . Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms advised city employees and customers to monitor their personal information , although there was no evidence to show customer or employee data was compromised Attack.Databreach . Mayor Bottoms clarified what services had not been impacted and were still available to residents and which ones had been impacted . Mayor Bottoms will not say if Atlanta intends to pay the ransom demand Attack.Ransom , saying , “ We will be looking for guidance from , specifically , our federal partners on how to best navigate the best course of action. ” During a press conference , Bottoms said , “ What we want to make sure of is that we aren ’ t putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound. ” She then turned the press conference over to Richard Cox , the City of Atlanta 's chief operations officer ; the poor dude is brand new to serving as Atlanta ’ s COO . He confirmed the existence of the ransom demand Attack.Ransom but would not reveal the contents .

Nearly three weeks after many of its systems were knocked out Attack.Ransom by a complex ransomware virus , Alaska ’ s Matanuska-Susitna Borough has restored most of its phone system , part of its geospatial information system and the online portal on which residents can pay their looming property-tax bills . But the borough , home to about 106,000 people outside Anchorage , still has many services to restore , prompting its elected officials last week to approve a disaster declaration in the cyberattack ’ s wake . The declaration could make the borough eligible for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency . Meanwhile , local government systems are slowly blinking back online . In its most recent updates , the borough says it ’ s restored departments ’ phone servers and that full email service is expected within a week . But other systems are still being rebuilt after the borough ’ s encounter Attack.Ransom with the ransomware known as BitPaymer , which locked down systems ranging from main file servers to the card-swipe mechanisms that control doors in government buildings . BitPaymer is a complex cocktail of malware that enters a targeted system through a Trojan horse , then lies dormant until it ’ s noticed and authorized users attempt to remove it , at which point it locks up the system with a demand for a sum of money Attack.Ransom payable in bitcoin . “ All of the pieces of this are the absolute worst in the world , and they have all been combined together and put on us at one time , ” borough IT Director Eric Wyatt says in a recent YouTube video about the response to the cyberattack . In the case of Mat-Su , as the borough is known to residents , Wyatt has said the Trojan component likely arrived as early as May 3 , more than two months before an attempted anti-virus sweep triggered the ransom demand Attack.Ransom . According to evidence found during the initial investigation of the attack , Mat-Su was at least the 210th victim of the BitPaymer package since it was first unleashed in June 2017 . This week , it possibly found its latest victim in the Professional Golfers Association , employees of which found themselves locked out of their systems on the eve of the prestigious PGA Championship . According to the cybersecurity research website BleepingComputer , the attack on the PGA resembles the one that hit Mat-Su . There ’ s no apparent timeline for when all of Mat-Su ’ s systems will be back to normal , though Wyatt says in his video update that the borough is receiving assistance from at least 20 other organizations , including tech vendors and the FBI . But the restoration of property tax payments on Aug. 2 came just in time : homeowners are required to pay half their 2018 tax bills by Aug. 15 , and as a borough press release states , “ there is traditionally a very long line for making payments in person . ”

MONTREAL—On Sept 10 , municipal employees in a region between Montreal and Quebec City arrived at work to discover a threatening message on their computers notifying Attack.Ransom them they were locked out of all their files . In order to regain access to its data , the regional municipality of Mekinac was told to deposit Attack.Ransom eight units of the digital currency Bitcoin into a bank account — roughly equivalent to $ 65,000 . Mekinac ’ s IT department eventually negotiated Attack.Ransom the cyber extortionists down and paid Attack.Ransom $ 30,000 in Bitcoin , but not before the region ’ s servers were disabled for about two weeks . The attack highlights the inability of many small municipalities to adequately protect their data , but also the lack of guidance on cybersecurity provided to them by the Quebec government , according to Prof. Jose Fernandez , a malware expert at Montreal ’ s Polytechnique engineering school . “ Quebec is an embarrassment , ” Fernandez said in an interview , adding that he has tried without success to contact government representatives to alert them to the problem . “ There hasn ’ t been any traction on this issue in the past 15 years , ” he said . “ I try to speak to ( the government ) but there is nobody . Who are you going to call ? Nobody. ” Bernard Thompson , reeve for the Mekinac regional municipality , said the ransom demand Attack.Ransom presented a real dilemma for his small organization . Mekinac groups together 10 municipalities with a population of roughly 13,000 people . “ It was hard , clearly , on the moral side of things that we had to pay a bunch of bandits , ” Thompson said . Mekinac ’ s attackers used malicious software — known as malware or ransomware — to demand money Attack.Ransom in return for keys to unlock the data . Fernandez said it is ironic that Quebec is home to a thriving cybersecurity industry and is an emerging hub for artificial-intelligence research , yet the provincial government is “ decades ” behind other provinces in defending against cyberattacks . Still , Quebec is not the only province experiencing attacks . Several municipal governments and businesses in Ontario were recently hit by ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom , prompting the Ontario Provincial Police to issue an advisory in September . In response to the growing problem , Communications Security Establishment — the Defence Department ’ s electronic intelligence agency — launched the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security last month . It is responsible for monitoring “ new forms of ransomware ” and advising the federal and provincial governments . Spokesman Evan Koronewski said the centre has no provincial or territorial equivalent . Fernandez , however , notes that some provinces are taking significant steps . British Columbia and New Brunswick have established offices dedicated to protecting government data . Meanwhile in Quebec , he said , small towns are left unprotected . “ I ’ m hoping the new government does something about it , ” he said . Patrick Harvey , spokesman for the Public Security Department , disputed the claim the provincial government is unprepared for cyberattacks . He said the Treasury Department has a director of information responsible for ensuring government data is protected . The Public Security Department has a unit dedicated to responding to cyberattacks within the administration and provincial police . But municipalities are not part of the unit ’ s mandate . “ Municipalities are autonomous entities that are responsible for ensuring the security of their digital infrastructure , ” Harvey said . Mekinac ’ s servers were compromised after an employee opened and clicked on a link in a fraudulent email sent Attack.Phishing by the hackers . Once opened , the malware was downloaded onto the computer , giving the hackers access to the entire network . The hackers then encrypted all the data and held it hostage until they received Attack.Ransom their bitcoins . Once a system ’ s data is encrypted , it ’ s virtually impossible to crack the code without a key — and there is nothing police can do about it . Most professional criminals use commercial grade encryption and to locate a key to decrypt data would take “ astronomical effort in terms of computing , ” Fernandez said . “ You either pay Attack.Ransom or you don ’ t get the data. ” The identity and location of Mekinac ’ s hackers were never discovered . Thompson said police seized some of his computers for analysis and told his office not to negotiate or pay Attack.Ransom the criminals . But Thompson said his region couldn ’ t heed that advice , because it would have meant months of data re-entry , costing significantly more than $ 30,000 . So they paid Attack.Ransom , got their data back and learned a valuable lesson . “ In the end , in terms of the security of our system , ( the attack ) was actually positive , ” Thompson said . A local cybersecurity company — for $ 10,000 a year — helped the regional municipality build firewalls and encrypt its own data . “ We are practically no longer vulnerable , ” Thompson said . “ Everything is encrypted now . Every email is analyzed before we even receive it. ” He warns that small towns across the province are just as susceptible to attack as his region was . “ Every day , our system catches malicious emails trying to penetrate — but they are stopped , ” he said . “ But the attacks keep coming . ”

Bristol Airport authorities were recently forced to take their flight information system displays offline for two days to contain a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom . The authorities dismissed the ransom demand Attack.Ransom and decided to rebuild the affected systems . For two days , flight status information was displayed on whiteboards and there was an increase in announcements over the speakers . Similarly , in the last few months there have been several cyberattacks targeting hospitals , city administration and sporting events . The servers of the US-based PGA were reportedly hit by ransomware Attack.Ransom attacks right before the PGA Championship in the first week of August . A new ransomware called Everlasting Blue Blackmail Virus , which targets Windows PCs using spam and phishing campaigns Attack.Phishing , flashes former US President Barrack Obama ’ s image with the ransom message . Once the ransomware gains entry into the system , its looks for all .exe ( executable ) files and encrypts them , preventing users from running apps until the ransom is paid Attack.Ransom . Hot on the heels of the cyberattack Attack.Ransom on the town of Valdez in Alaska , Canadian town Midland in Ontario was hit by a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom in the first week of September . Hackers broke into the city database involving fire , water , and waste management and blocked access , demanding ransom Attack.Ransom . A major concern for cybersecurity experts is the fileless attacks , which are hard to detect . These attacks do not install a malicious software to infiltrate a victim ’ s computer , which makes it difficult for anti-virus solutions to detect them . According to Ponemon Institute , 35 % of all cyberattacks in 2018 were fileless , while security solution provider Carbon Black claims that fileless attacks accounted for 50 % of all successful data breaches Attack.Databreach targeting financial businesses . Fileless attacks target legitimate Windows tools such as PowerShell ( a scripting language which can provide hackers unrestricted access to Windows API ) and Windows Management Instrumentation ( used by admins ) . By latching on to these tools , hackers gain control over the PC and eventually the organization ’ s database . In another recent development , researchers at F-Secure have come across a new vulnerability affecting PCs . Dubbed as cold boot , the attack can be carried off using a special programme through a USB drive connected to a PC . Using the programme , the hacker can disable the memory overwriting by rebooting the system , without a proper shutdown . The attack can be used to break into company system which might have access to the company network .

The city of North Bend , Ore. , was hit with a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom which temporarily locked out city workers from their computers and databases . “ One weekend morning a few weeks back all of our servers and things locked up , and we received a ransomware note that asked for Attack.Ransom $ 50,000 in Bitcoin these people would provide us with the code to unlock our computer systems , ” North Bend City Administrator Terence O ’ Connor told The World . Fortunately the city ’ s IT systems were backed up and officials were able to avoid the high ransom demanded Attack.Ransom by the criminals responsible for the attack Attack.Ransom . City officials did , however , call in the FBI to investigate the attack and while they were unable to identify anyone directly involved in the attack , they were able to trace the ransom demand Attack.Ransom to Romania . O ’ Connor added that the attack appeared to be a more sophisticated ransomware where there are two keys needed to unlock your system with one planted in the system and the other is held by the culprit . The city was insured and ended up having to pay Attack.Ransom around $ 5,000 in out of pocket expenses as well as added a firewall security to prevent future attacks .

East Ohio Regional Hospital in Harper 's Ferry , Ohio , and Ohio Valley Medical Center in Wheeling , West Virginia , both got affected by ransomware on the last weekend of November . [ 1 ] Due to this incident , ambulance patients were transported to other hospitals nearby and emergency room admissions were limited to walk-up patients only . Due to attack , employees needed to switch to paper charting and various systems were taken offline immediately . This fairly quick response limited the ransomware damage and prevented the possible data breach Attack.Databreach . [ 2 ] According to Karin Janiszewski , director of marketing and public relations for EORH and OVMC , hospitals reacted as soon as possible and , at the moment of writing , they are already using the computer network . On the following Saturday , Karin Janiszewski stated : There has been no patient information breach Attack.Databreach . The hospitals are switching to paper charting to ensure patient data protection . We have redundant security , so the attack was able to get through the first layer but not the second layer . IT staff dealt with the outbreak to avoid a data breach Attack.Databreach When it comes to malware attacks on large companies , the loss Attack.Databreach of personal customer data is the worst thing that can happen . It seems that this time the situation was handled quick enough to prevent having the sensitive data being compromised Attack.Databreach . IT team took several computers offline , and , because of this , most of the clinical operations transferred to other units , and emergency patients were automatically taken to different locations . On Saturday , when the incidents occurred , hospital officials stated that the staff is ready to take everything on paper until the downtime is over . Also , since this is a ransomware-type malware attack Attack.Ransom , hackers demand a ransom Attack.Ransom . However , officials did not select the scenario involving making the payment Attack.Ransom . No matter how big or how little the ransom demand Attack.Ransom is , officials should n't even consider making the payment Attack.Ransom because it may lead to system damage or permanent data loss . [ 3 ] In the United States , data breaches Attack.Databreach and malware attacks on huge organizations have become a common thing , especially in the healthcare industry . In 2016 Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital paid the demanded ransom Attack.Ransom in Bitcoin after having its data encrypted . [ 4 ] The infection was widespread and the attack Attack.Ransom cost around $ 17 000 . Another incident that resulted in ransom payment Attack.Ransom was spotted in Kansas Heart Hospital in 2016 also . Unfortunately , after the payment was made Attack.Ransom , attackers disappeared ignoring the promise to decrypt locked files . They send yet another ransom demand Attack.Ransom instead and asked for Attack.Ransom a bigger amount of money . Previously this year , the Indiana-based hospital got infected with SamSam which is an infamous ransomware virus which has been relying on specific infection tactics which is highly personalized . After considering different scenarios , the hospital decided to pay Attack.Ransom 4 BTC ( equal to $ 45 000 at that time ) for ransomware developers to get private keys needed for files ' recovery . Ransomware developers gave what they promised .

Two Iranian men already indicted in New Jersey in connection with a broad cybercrime and extortion scheme targeting government agencies , cities and businesses now face new federal charges in Georgia related to a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom that caused havoc for the city of Atlanta earlier this year . A federal grand jury in Atlanta returned an indictment Tuesday accusing Faramarz Shahi Savandi and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act , federal prosecutors said in a news release Wednesday . The New Jersey indictment against the pair was filed last month on broad conspiracy charges that included the Atlanta cyberattack . Byung “ BJay ” Pak , the U.S. attorney in Atlanta , said in a news release that the Atlanta indictment was sought in coordination with the earlier indictment and seeks to ensure that “ those responsible for the attacks face justice here as well. ” The Atlanta indictment accuses the two men of launching a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom against Atlanta that encrypted vital city computer systems . The attack significantly disrupted city operations and caused millions of dollars in losses , prosecutors said . The Department of Justice has said the two men remain fugitives and are believed to be in Iran , though they are not believed to be connected to the Iranian government . No attorney was listed for either man in online court records . In the Atlanta attack Attack.Ransom , a ransomware known as SamSam was used to infect about 3,789 computers belonging to the city , prosecutors said . The ransomware encrypted the files on the computers and showed a ransom note demanding payment Attack.Ransom for a decryption key . The note demanded Attack.Ransom 0.8 bitcoin per affected computer or six bitcoin to decrypt all affected computers . Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said in the days after the ransomware attack Attack.Ransom that the ransom demand Attack.Ransom was equivalent to $ 51,000 . The ransom note provided a bitcoin address to pay the ransom Attack.Ransom and a website accessible only on the dark web , where it said the city could retrieve the decryption key , prosecutors said . The decryption key became inaccessible shortly after the attack , and the city didn ’ t pay the ransom Attack.Ransom , prosecutors said . The New Jersey indictment filed Nov 27 accuses the two men of creating the SamSam ransomware and says it was used to encrypt the computers of more than 200 victims , including government agencies , cities and businesses . Among the other victims are the city of Newark , New Jersey , the Colorado Department of Transportation , the Port of San Diego and six health care companies across the U.S. , according to the Justice Department . The New Jersey charges include conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity in connection with computers . The overall scheme allowed the hackers to make about $ 6 million and caused the victims to lose more than $ 30 million , prosecutors said .

The Advocate sought the ransom demand Attack.Ransom amount with a public records request of the Licking County Commissioners . Licking County Prosecutor Bill Hayes provided The Advocate the information Monday . A computer virus discovered Jan 31 caused Licking County government to shut down about 1,000 computers and its phone systems to prevent the virus from spreading , protect data and preserve evidence . The FBI and Bureau of Criminal Investigation were notified . County officials chose not to pay the ransom Attack.Ransom , and recovered data from its backups . By Feb 16 , most of the county system was back in service . Licking County Commissioner Tim Bubb said the price per bitcoin was about $ 1,100 when the computers were hacked , making the demand Attack.Ransom about $ 30,000 . As of 4 p.m. Monday , the value of one bitcoin was $ 1,235 . The computer hack cost the county more than $ 50,000 , Bubb said , which includes insurance and overtime , but he does not regret refusing to pay the demand Attack.Ransom . `` I 'm just kind of hard-nosed about that , '' Bubb said . `` I feel we were violated by people with criminal intent , and we do n't owe them anything . '' Bubb said people have asked him why the county did n't just pay the demand Attack.Ransom , but Bubb said it may not have been that simple . `` There was no guarantee that would have been the final price , or that they would have acted honorably . There 's a certain amount of unknown that would make you uneasy . '' Sylint , a cyber security firm assisting the county , was set to notify the state that the county 's computer system was virus-free , Bubb said . The state asked for the assurance before it hooked back up with the county .

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 .

The average amount of a ransomware demand Attack.Ransom has increased from $ 294 in 2015 to $ 1,077 last year , according to a report released last week by Symantec . `` That 's a pretty dramatic increase , '' said Kevin Haley , director of security response at Symantec . `` The bad guys can get almost anything they ask for , '' Haley said . Some cybercriminals also adjust the size of the ransom demand Attack.Ransom to the type of victim , asking Attack.Ransom enterprises for significantly larger amounts of money than they do of consumers . The company also surveyed ransomware victims , and found that 34 percent of people paid the ransom Attack.Ransom globally . But in the U.S. , the number was 64 percent . All this money coming in is bad news for cybersecurity professionals . `` We 're seeing a lot more people investing in this business , because it 's highly profitable and it 's really easy to get into , '' he said . `` The end result is more malware , and more ransomware . The problem will continue getting worse . '' The Internet of Things was also a major topic in the report . Symantec operates an IoT honeypot , and the number of attacks nearly doubled over the course of 2016 . The intensity of attacks really surprised him , Haley said . During peak activity , attacks would come in every two minutes . That means that vulnerable devices would get infected almost as soon as they are connected to the internet , he said . `` If you plug it in , and decide to take care of security later , you 're already too late . '' There 's no grace period . `` But if the device is not using a default password , is patched , and is up to date , it can fight off most of those attacks , '' he said . `` Unfortunately , we know that there are a lot of devices out there with default passwords , or simple passwords , or have n't been patched . '' The 77-page report also covered a wide variety of other security-related topics . One in 131 emails contained a malicious link or attachment , the highest rate in five years .

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 .