Miami Police Department Suffers Ransomware Attack

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The North Miami police department was hit by a ransomware attack. According to the police officials, the infection on their department’s computer network was detected earlier this week. However, the police officials also clarified that there was no interruption in public safety services observed. In addition, the attackers did contact the victim police department for millions in order to regain their access to the information stored online. After the ransomware attack on the North Miami Beach Police Department encrypted files on its computer networks, the IT personnel in the police department immediately shut down the affected computers and alerted the FBI and Secret Service. So far, the police department has not revealed the information regarding the identity of the attacker group or what information was compromised in the attack.

Per the North Miami Beach Police Department,

“We continue to work closely with these federal partners, as well as the county police department and a third-party forensic investigator, to determine the extent and objectives of the attack and how best to address it.”

Ransomware targeting governmental departments is not news. Many cities in the United States have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in ransom to protect their data in the past, even though law enforcement agencies did not agree on that. The City of Atlanta had refused to pay a ransom of slightly over $50,000 in 2 years ago. As a result, they had to spend ten million dollars in the aftermath of the attack to restore its IT systems. Nevertheless, the United States Conference of Mayors promised that they would not pay the ransom to these cyber attackers any more last year. 2 bills regarding paying ransom were introduced last month in the New York State Senate. If they passed, using taxpayers’ money to pay ransoms demanded by cybercriminals will be banned.

 

What Should I Do If My Company Gets Hit With a Ransomware?
Contact LIFARS Immediately

 


Credits:

https://cyware.com/news/ransomware-actors-targets-police-department-in-miami-demand-millions-in-ransom-e0c83e4a/