Surveillance Cameras Infected With Ransomware
Days before Trump’s inauguration, the Metropolitan Police Department discovered 123 surveillance cameras were inoperable due to two separate ransomware infections. The infections were found on January 12th and by January 15th the systems had been restored. Investigators resolved the issues by identifying and disconnecting the infected devices. All of the software was removed from these devices prior to a full-system restart. Fortunately, this corrected the issue.
The ransomware variant used to take down the surveillance system was not disclosed, nor was the ransom demand.
According to the Washington Times, public safety was never jeopardized. This statement may be a reach, considering several places that could not be watched were areas where tens of thousands of people gathered for the inauguration on January 20th and the march on January 21st.
Ransomware Attacks
To see a full list of ransomware attacks that have taken place so far in 2017, you can click here. We have also created a ransomware map, see below, of the ransomware attacks that have taken place in the U.S. this year.
