A police department in Lincoln County, Maine whose shared server was infected by ransomware chose to pay $300 to the cyber criminals…
On March 20, rather than risk losing their internal files or spend more money and time to try to work around the cyberattack, the ransom was paid out in full. Once paid in Bitcoins, the decryption code was given to the records management department to access the captive data.
It was reported that an outdated computer system held the virus dormant. Once the dated computer was plugged in and returned to use, the virus spread to the department’s central server. It was reported that no information in the management system was lost or stolen.
After investigation, the location of the cyber-criminals scaled back to areas in Europe. It is not yet determined if the exact locations were found and if anyone was charged.
We have generated an interactive map that includes all of the ransomware attacks within the United States that have occurred this year.
