A Costly Repair
Wednesday morning, the city of Knoxville, TN released invoices showing $217,000 paid for a ransomware attack. The city was hit in June of 2020, and the hackers asked for 42.5 Bitcoin. At the time, that was worth nearly $400,00 (as of publishing that would now be worth about $1.6 million).
The city didn’t pay the hackers, however. Instead those funds were redirected to recovery experts, lawyers, problem solving management, and protection services to contain the invasion. While representatives for the city say there may be more expenses, so far they’ve saved money.
Cleaning Up The Aftermath
It’s important that Knoxville didn’t pay the ransom. Since it’s increasingly difficult to identify the people behind ransomware attacks, it’s also difficult to prosecute them and recover the monies paid. Because of this, ransomware is attractive to criminals.
Paying the ransom also doesn’t guarantee you’ll receive your data or that it will be protected from public release. By refusing to pay, it takes away the incentive for the criminals. While this can be devastating for any entity, cleaning up afterwards is always the better choice.
