Lake City: 2nd Florida city pays huge ransom to get their hacked computer systems back up and running
Ransomware hackers have struck again in Florida, this time in Lake City where the City fathers have agreed to pay a $500,000 Bitcoin ransom to recover the city’s computer systems – which have been locked up for the past two weeks. This is the Sunshine State’s second ransomware attack in the past two weeks, following on the heels of a $600,000 ransom that was recently paid by the city of Riviera Beach.
Earlier this week, Lake City fessed up and released a statement describing their attack:
6/25/2019
On Monday June 10th, 2019, the City of Lake City was targeted by a malware attack known as “Triple Threat.” This malware program rendered many systems such as telephones and emails inoperable. Immediately after the attack, all City networks were immediately isolated and disconnected, and City IT Staff along with a third-party vendor began recovery efforts. While these efforts were initially successful, many systems were determined to be unrecoverable.
Initially, no ransom was received through this attack, possibly due to the immediate response by the City to deactivate its system. Last week, however, a request for ransom was received from the attacker. This request was submitted to the Florida League of Cities, the insurance provider for the City of Lake City, who began working with the vendor assisting with Lake City’s recovery efforts. After a cost analysis, the League began negotiation efforts with the attacker, resulting in an agreement to pay 42 bitcoins. This measure was approved by a Special Council Meeting on Monday night.
Lake City is in good company when it comes to malware shutting down city-wide computer systems. In addition to Riviera Beach, Florida – Allentown, Pennsylvania; San Antonio, Texas; Greenville, North Carolina; and Baltimore, Maryland – have all suffered similar attacks, costing those town millions of dollars.
Those hacks were attributed to the ransomware virus named “RobinHood.” It’s not yet known if that’s the same virus that attacked Riviera Beach.
In the case of Baltimore’s cyberattack, the City followed the FBI’s suggestion not to pay last month’s $76,000 Bitcoin ransom. “Yet, the fallout from the attack resulted in the city being left with an $18 million clean up bill,” according to Business Insider.
There’s no guarantee that paying those Bitcoin ransoms to the hackers will result in getting the downed computer systems back up and running.
~ Written by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Connect with Richard on Facebook and Twitter
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