FACING INCREASED CYBER RANSOM DEMANDS, GOVERNMENTS MUST DECIDE IF THEY'LL PAY.

PositionNEWS & NUMBERS

Hackers are targeting governments more frequently--and demanding more money. On June 10, 2019, the City of Lake City, Florida, was targeted by a malware attack that rendered many systems--including telephones and e-mail--inoperable, according to the city. Lake City chose to pay the ransom of 42 bitcoins, or approximately $460,000. The City of Riviera Beach, Florida, was attacked on May 29, after an employee opened an Infected e-mail attachment, according to the Palm Beach Post. The malware brought down all of the city's online systems, including e-mail, some phones, and water utility pump stations. Riviera Beach paid a ransom of $600,000. These demands are much greater than those demanded of police departments in Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, and Tennessee, all of which paid the ransoms to get their data back according to published reports.

The City of Baltimore, Maryland, chose not to pay a requested ransom of approximately $80,000, demanded on May 7, 2019, according to news reports. The city has been fighting the...

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