School District Forced to Pay $10,000 in Bitcoin Ransomware Attack
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School District Forced to Pay $10,000 in Bitcoin Ransomware Attack

THELOGICALINDIAN - The Leominster Public Schools Commune has become the latest victim of a Bitcoin ransomware cyberattack The academy commune was affected to pay 10000 in Bitcoin to alleviate their arrangement

On April 14th, doubtable hackers took over the computer arrangement of the Leominster Public Schools Commune in Massachusetts, shutting it down. According to Paula Deacon, the administrator of the academy district, a lock was placed on the computer arrangement and a bribe was demanded. Meanwhile, the cyber hijackers assured that the bribe should be paid in Bitcoin, the accepted cryptocurrency.

As allotment of the negotiations amid the academy commune and the hackers, decryption keys were beatific to alleviate some of the bound files as a appearance of proof. Commenting on the issue, Dean Mazzarella, the ambassador of Leominster, said that the perpetrators were “smart.” He additionally said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was tracking the matter. According to the mayor, the $10,000 bribe acquittal will be taken from the city’s accepted fund. Mazzarella additionally added:

Michael Goldman, the acting Leominster Badge Chief, said that the abomination is absurd to track. He declared his suspicions that the hackers were from overseas, apparently Europe. As a result, there is adored little that the badge administration can do. Goldman additionally said that he brash Deacon to pay the ransom.

Goldman additionally fatigued that the ransomware advance did not represent a annexation of any data. The academy district’s files were bound down, as able-bodied as the school’s email system, but no abstracts was absolutely mined.

Ransomware attack

This advance is the latest in a slew of cryptocurrency-related cyber-attacks that are acceptable added rampant. In January 2018, Hancock Health in Indiana was hit with a ransomware attack. The hospital was forced to pay $55,000 account of Bitcoin to the hackers. Perhaps the best accepted Bitcoin ransomware is the WannaCry ransomware variant. It acquired above disruptions beyond the apple in 2017 by advancing computer systems and ambitious Bitcoin as ransom. Victims of the advance included the U.K. NHS and tech companies in Spain, Taiwan, Ukraine, and Russia.

Having an abreast malware aegis arrangement can advice anticipate ransomware attacks. In addition, users are additionally brash to accomplish approved backups to sites that are not anon affiliated to their systems. In the accident of a hack, users can restore their systems from the backups rather than advantageous the ransom. Still, no arrangement is absolutely incontestable to attack.

What are your angle on cryptocurrency ransomware? Do you anticipate it abnormally affects the accessible acumen of cryptocurrencies? Please allotment your angle in the comments below.

Image address of Pixabay and Bitcoinist archives.