Over One Million Dollar Have Been Spent on CDOT’s Ransomware Recovery

It’s not just an overstatement that ransomware attacks can culminate into the losses of millions.  According to the Colorado’s Department of Transportation (CDOT), they have spent somewhere between 1 to 1.5 million dollars in recovering from the ransomware attacks affecting thousands of their computer devices.

Although, ransomware repair measures were taken immediately after the attack. But as per the department’s spokeswoman, the targeted system hasn’t completely restored to its original settings even after six weeks. Staff of CDOT is trying to adapt this new normal following the attack.

Nearly 2000 devices with Windows were locked down by the notorious SamSam ransomware in February. It is the same ransomware that brought down the municipal system in Atlanta exactly after one month.

CDOT Ransomware Attack

In contrast to Atlanta’s case, where majority of the comprised networks are of public domain, CDOT was not affected that directly by the attack. Therefore, operations of traffic control and road cameras remained functional amid the ransomware infection.

It is important to note that it took nearly two weeks by the administration for ransomware repair and two more weeks to restore the back-office operations affected by the attack. So, approximately an entire month was consumed to get the department back to work. We can only imagine the destruction that follows that attack if it would have expanded to the public domain of the department’s network.

The department also had to get the services of federal agencies and external cyber security experts for effective ransomware repairs and removal since the attack was momentous in nature and the department’s own IT staff can’t tackle with all the fallout on its own.

According to the department’s official statement, up to 150 people have worked at a time on the restoration works after the attack. Governor of Colorado issued the funds of two million following the attack.

The department hasn’t disclosed the amount of ransom (in Bitcoin) asked by the operators, which they refused to pay. Currently FBI has taken over the investigation and trying to find a link between the ransomware attacks using the same strain on different government departments.

For assistance on file recovery, please contact MonsterCloud Cyber Security experts for a professional ransomware removal.