Ransomware Hits Madison County
Posted by: Timothy Weaver on 11/09/2016 02:15 PM
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Ransomware has hit Indiana's Madison County and locked officials out of the Madison County Jail and the county court systems.
This is day 5 of the attack and IT department head, Lisa Cannon, said that employees are working around the clock to recover files. Investigators are also trying to track down the culprits.
“We cannot query old information to bring up prior reports or prior court records,” said Madison County sheriff Scott Mellinger, speaking to the local FOX affiliate. “If we want to bring somebody’s record up for something in the future, let’s say for somebody that has been arrested or somebody who is even in jail then we cannot look up information that would help us at a hearing. On the sheriff’s office side, we cannot book people into jail using the computers. We are using pencil and paper like the old days.”
The county is also talking to their cyber-insurance company though the amount of the ransom has not been revealed.
The ransomware is not affecting peoples personal information, payment records, voting system or the 911 emergency system.
“They are calling this a very significant event and that means whoever is behind it absolutely knows what they are doing and it is going to be extremely difficult for us to gain access of our servers on our own,” said Mellinger.
It is considered a clearly financial attack as Cannon said: “I don’t think this has to do with an election. I don’t think it has to do with crippling a certain department.”
Update: Against advice from law enforcement, Madison County paid the ransom.
Source: Info Security
“We cannot query old information to bring up prior reports or prior court records,” said Madison County sheriff Scott Mellinger, speaking to the local FOX affiliate. “If we want to bring somebody’s record up for something in the future, let’s say for somebody that has been arrested or somebody who is even in jail then we cannot look up information that would help us at a hearing. On the sheriff’s office side, we cannot book people into jail using the computers. We are using pencil and paper like the old days.”
The county is also talking to their cyber-insurance company though the amount of the ransom has not been revealed.
The ransomware is not affecting peoples personal information, payment records, voting system or the 911 emergency system.
“They are calling this a very significant event and that means whoever is behind it absolutely knows what they are doing and it is going to be extremely difficult for us to gain access of our servers on our own,” said Mellinger.
It is considered a clearly financial attack as Cannon said: “I don’t think this has to do with an election. I don’t think it has to do with crippling a certain department.”
Update: Against advice from law enforcement, Madison County paid the ransom.
Source: Info Security
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