March saw ransomware attacks on two big cities in the USA. Silicon Valley is considered to be the IT centre of the world and one would expect it to be free of any ransomware threats, but even in Bay Area, officials are not confident and fear the advanced ransomware campaigns that are threatening them these days.
Views of an Expert
A recent survey notes that 25 percent of public offices in USA’s local governments have to deal with a cyberattack. Moreover, one out of seven accepted that once in a year their systems get compromised which leads to sensitive data to be used by cybercriminals. Almost 30 percent of these offices were asked for a ransom in exchange for their data.
According to an IT expert from San Jose, Rob Lloyd, it is usual for cities in USA to be threatened by ransomware daily. However the important thing to note here is which one of them actually succeeds in successfully entering computer systems and getting access to critical data.
Mr. Lloyd further stated that they did have a few ransomware attacks coming into their systems which were unthreatening, and thus they were able to recover and remove ransomware without any major losses.
However, he expressed sympathy for his counterparts in Atlanta and Baltimore who were unluckier and faced with sophisticated ransomware attacks, where cybercriminals managed to get their hands on sensitive data before the authorities were able to remove ransomware.
What Happened in Atlanta and Baltimore?
Atlanta faced a ransomware attack at the end of March which was considered by the media as one of the most dangerous attacks in the history of US’ major cities. The ransomware was identified as SamSam Ransomware. Attackers of SamSam asked for a ransom of more than $50,000, an amount which is one of the highest ransom demands in the ransomware attack history.
Ransom demands are usually low and rarely exceed five figures. However, the enormity and sensitivity of Atlanta’s data prompted cybercriminals to demand such a high ransom.
Baltimore was soon followed by a ransomware attack that was able to close its automated emergency dispatching. The operations were halted for 17 hours as security experts worked extensively to remove ransomware.
