Water Utility Pays $25,000 Ransom

Another ransomware attack pays off for the criminals.

The Lansing, Michigan Board of Water and Light has acknowledged that it was the victim of a ransom attack that shut down their accounting and email systems. It also disabled their phone lines that served as a portal for account inquiries.

The ransom was $25,000. The attack took place on April 25th.

“Paying the ransom was distasteful and disgusting, but sadly necessary,” said BWL GM Dick Peffley during a meeting of the BWL Board of Commissioners' Committee of the Whole.

The $25,000 was only a portion of the total cost of the attack. Mitigating the attack cost the utility and additional $2.4 million. All but $500,000 was covered by insurance. The costs were incurred for deploying an emergency response team, crisis management, mitigation efforts, cybersecurity personnel and improved technologies.

Source: SCMagazine