Lake City to Pay Nearly $500,000 to Hackers

Lake City to Pay Nearly $500,000 to Hackers

Hackers have found a sweet spot in encrypting and attacking municipal computer systems. Lake City is the latest to suffer from these attacks, and after two weeks of inaccessible services, have agreed to pay the $460,000 ransom to hackers.

  • By Kaitlyn DeHaven
  • Jun 27, 2019

Another Florida city has agreed to pay a ransom to regain control over their municipal computer systems. This is one of a few Florida cities to recently pay hackers a ransom to recover their information, as Rivera Beach just recently announced they would pay a $600,000 ransom to recover their encrypted files.

The mayor of Lake City told CBS 47 Action News Jax on Tuesday that the city would give the hackers $460,000 to hand back control of email and other servers seized on June 10. The attack knocked out the city’s email, and made it so the community could not pay their bills.

Ilia Kolochenko, the founder and CEO of ImmuniWeb said that this trend of encrypting computers and files, and only returning them for a ransom, is really a dangerous movement.

“This is a truly alarming trend that will likely spur targeted, well-planned attacks on cities and similarly defenseless victims. Until today, based on our experience, ransomware against such vulnerable classes of victims were either unsystematic or of relatively poor quality,” Kolochenko said. “However, with such lucrative and easy stakes on the table, cybercriminals will now willingly invest to prepare sophisticated, hardly-detectable and well-targeted campaigns. Worse, such cybercrimes are almost uninvestigable due to technical issues and payments in cryptocurrency.”

In the last 12 months, nearly half of organizations in the public sector say ransomware has impacted their business operations. In addition, 73% in the public sector have experienced two-to-five days of downtime as a result of the ransomware attack.

According to CBS 47 Action News Jax, all the city’s emergency services are in full operation, but it could take weeks or months until all services return to normal.

About the Author

Kaitlyn DeHaven is the Associate Content Editor for the Infrastructure Solutions Group at 1105 Media.

Featured

  • The Need for a Comprehensive Strategy Addressing Cybersecurity and Quantum Technology

    The Need for a Comprehensive Strategy Addressing Cybersecurity and Quantum Technology

    Over the past two years, the Biden Administration has taken a series of steps centered on quantum and cybersecurity. Read Now

  • IoT Saves the Day

    IoT Saves the Day

    Today, creating a safe environment across schools, hotels, office buildings, housing complexes and other facilities has become a necessity. There are so many dangers lurking in buildings of all sizes and shapes from fire hazards, vaping issues, chemical/air quality issues, intruders and so much more. Read Now

  • One Pane, Less Pain

    One Pane, Less Pain

    Just because a solution is built on an open-standards platform doesn’t ensure that all the vendors’ systems will work together as promised. Some features may not be supported, or not supported to their fullest potential. Read Now

  • Revamping Wrigley Field

    Revamping Wrigley Field

    When talking about baseball in the United States, it’s hard not to think of the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field. With a history spanning more than 100 years, the Chicago Cubs are one of the most recognized teams in professional sports. Read Now

Most   Popular

Featured Cybersecurity

Webinars

New Products

  • Connect ONE’s powerful cloud-hosted management platform provides the means to tailor lockdowns and emergency mass notifications throughout a facility – while simultaneously alerting occupants to hazards or next steps, like evacuation.

    Connect ONE®

    Connect ONE’s powerful cloud-hosted management platform provides the means to tailor lockdowns and emergency mass notifications throughout a facility – while simultaneously alerting occupants to hazards or next steps, like evacuation. 3

  • Camden Door Controls ‘SER” Surface Boxes and Extension Rings

    Camden Door Controls ‘SER” Surface Boxes and Extension Rings

    Camden Door Controls has introduced new ‘SER” surface boxes and extension rings that provide a complete solution for new construction. In addition, they provide a simple and robust solution when replacing round wired and manual push plate switches with either Camden’s wired or wireless SureWave™ no-touch switches or Kinetic™ no-battery wireless switches. 3

  • QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    The latest Qualcomm® Vision Intelligence Platform offers next-generation smart camera IoT solutions to improve safety and security across enterprises, cities and spaces. The Vision Intelligence Platform was expanded in March 2022 with the introduction of the QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC), which delivers superior artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing at the edge. 3