The Riviera Beach, Fla., city council agreed Monday to pay around $600,000 in ransom to regain access to data stolen in a ransomware attack on the community’s security systems.
The payment will be made with Bitcoin, making it near impossible to track where the hack came from, the Palm Beach Post reported. The city council approved the ransomware payment unanimously.
The breach occurred on May 29 when a police department official opened an email containing a virus, which crippled the city’s computer systems and forced the city to work without them.
The attack was reportedly so crippling that “[everyone] from the city council on down [was left] without email and phone service. Paychecks that were supposed to be direct-deposited to employee bank accounts instead had to be hand-printed by finance department staffers working overtime. Police searched their closets to find paper tickets for issuing traffic citations.”
Riviera Beach is among more than 50 cities who have also been hit by ransomware attacks in the past two years, including Atlanta, which took a $2.6 million hit after an attack.
The payment of $600,000 comes in addition to a repurchasing of computers and and insurance for them, all of which will cost the city over $1.2 million. Many fear it could be a sign of things to come for other major cities across the U.S.
A Florida city paid a $600,000 bitcoin ransom to hackers who took over its computers — and it’s a massive alarm bell for the rest of the US. #ransomware #cybersecurity #CryptoStopper https://t.co/g650BBEe4w via @businessinsider @sineadbaker1 pic.twitter.com/xWfgupVwyw
— Greg Edwards (@WatchPointData) June 20, 2019
