San Bernardino County paid $1.1 million as ransom to hackers who broke into the systems of the Sheriff’s Department.
The department acknowledged a ransomware atack last month that encrypted many of its files, disrupted networks, and prevented access to data.
San Bernardino Had Insurance
According to sources, the county’s part of the ransom was over $511,000. Officials also claimed that the county had insurance for similar attacks. The insurance company and county agreed to pay for the system’s complete operation and safe data restoration after negotiating with the hackers.
Speaking on the ransom, Vivek Bhandari of Tanium, a security company, stated that the cost is pretty brutal, not just to finance – but in the case of law enforcement, it’s the agency, the people they are serving.
Although the county stated that it seriously considered its decision whether to pay or not. Nonetheless, Bhandari insisted that word spread among hackers when institutions choose to pay a ransom, and others may try to target the same agency again.
The Crippling Attack
On April 7, the county learned about the incident and immediately started taking action to shut down services, secure the network, and create workarounds for data access. For instance, instead of using the computers in their vehicles, patrol units had to radio dispatch to run license plates or obtain background information on a suspect.
The county asserts that the attack did not jeopardize public safety, and a criminal investigation is still ongoing.
Officials suspect that after someone on a county computer clicked on a malicious link, the hackers most likely gained access to the system.
According to experts, these kinds of attacks are happening increasingly frequently.
According to Bhandari, a common strategy is something that will persuade a person to open a file or click on a link. He advised users to pay strict attention to the links they open in emails if they want to stay safe online.
