Two Florida Cities Pay Hackers Over $1 Million In Attempt to Restore Networks
Within the last week, you may have heard about the Florida city that paid cyber criminals $600,000 in an attempt to restore their networks. That city was Riviera Beach. In addition to paying the ransom demands, the city council also approved $1 million in funding to replace the impacted devices.
Prior to the Riviera Beach infection, another Florida municipality was hit with ransomware. This one was Lake City. This attack didn’t get nearly the publicity as Riviera Beach, because they didn’t pay the hackers. Immediately, anyway. However, after having their email systems down for over two weeks, the city has decided to give in. New reports have confirmed, the city of Lake City sent hackers a payment of $460,000 in bitcoin, a non-traceable digital currency.
These two attacks alone have cost Florida taxpayers over $1 million in ransom demands alone. Hackers are drooling. They have collected one million dollars, in a matter of seven days. Yet we wonder why cyber attacks are spreading like cancer.
