Riviera Beach Florida City Council Agrees to Pay Cybercriminals Nearly $600K Malware Ransom

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.infosecnews.org/riviera-beach-florida-city-council-agrees-to-pay-cybercriminals-nearly-600k-malware-ransom

By William Knowles @c4i
Senior Editor
InfoSec News
June 20, 2019

Riviera Beach Florida just became the newest member of a club no city or 
local government hopes to join. Taking only a few minutes and by a 
unanimous vote of 5-0 on Monday night the board authorized Riviera Beach’s 
insurer to pay 65 bitcoins valued at approximately $592K USD. Paying off a 
malware ransom that has crippled all of the city’s information technology 
infrastructure since May 29th after someone in the police department 
clicked on a malicious email.

But unlike the 2000 action flick Proof of Life, there’s no guarantee 
paying the ransom will unlock the affected computer network and all the 
encrypted files, and while its 2019, Its not likely Cyber-Insurance 
companies have former 22nd SAS and 75th Ranger Battalion types running 
around the world with machine guns blazing for a successful hostage rescue 
of a malware-infected network.

The council held a special meeting earlier in June to authorize $941,000 
for 310 new desktop and 90 laptop computers and other hardware. Much of 
the existing hardware was a half-dozen-years old and vulnerable to another 
malware attack, so it was time to replace it anyway, Riviera Beach 
Councilwoman Julie Botel said.

[...]

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