The police in Tennessee found themselves in the difficult predicament of being forced to pay a ransom in bitcoin for their files, according to Coin Desk today. Cryptowall gained access inside the Dickson County police computer files.
The ransom as reported by the Nashville WTVF-TV that the Trojan horse program gained access into the computer probably through another download piece of information opened for viewing. The program then encrypted the files and demanded ransom of $500 in bitcoin.
The encrypted files were not stolen but the police could not regain access until the ransom was paid. Jeff McCliss, the IT director, told WTVF-TV that the held documents were sensitive criminal reports with evidence with a total of more than 70,000 files during the ransom period.
McCliss discovered that the malware entered the system when a police department employee clicked on an ad online. This allowed the entry but the police department was not directly chosen for the attack.
They did consult state and federal-level investigators and cyber security military specialists. The solution by consensus was to pay the ransom and avoid loss of valuable documents and evidence.
McCliss realizes that Cryptowall is reaching global proportions in its attacks but they paid the ransom with the belief statement, “Is it better to take a stand and lose all that information? Or make the payment grit your teeth and just do it? It made me sick to have to do that.”
Yahoo, AOL and online publications have been the delivery of malware over the past several months. Online search destinations have been a popular malware tool to take hostage computer files……
Read Full Story: Examiner.com
