Maine police departments pay hackers to unlock computer system

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.pressherald.com/2015/04/10/police-departments-pay-hackers-to-unlock-computer-system/

By Staff Reports
Portland Press Herald
April 10, 2015

Police departments in midcoast and northern Maine said they have paid 
ransom to hackers to keep their computer files from being destroyed, 
WCSH-TV reported Friday night.

The Portland station said the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and four 
towns paid $300 to the hackers after a virus, called a “megacode,” was 
downloaded on a computer system they share. Lincoln County Sheriff Todd 
Bracket said that the computer system was unusable until the fee was paid, 
and that the hackers claimed the program, called “ransomware,” would wipe 
the entire computer system clean if the fee wasn’t paid.

The creator of the virus gave the sheriff’s office a code to unlock the 
computer system after the money was received. The county paid in bitcoins, 
an online currency.

[...]

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