Hackers in recent times laid siege the City of Atlanta and implanted Bitcoin ransomware demanding approximately $51,000 before discharging key public services.
The Atlanta City public system was attacked recently by hackers who mounted the SamSam ransomware and demanded 6 bitcoins worthy $51,000 before releasing all affected computers. The assault has been a reaction from the FBI, Cisco cybersecurity, Microsoft and Department of Homeland Security and which took control of the network.
On Thursday, March 22, the attack took place around 5:40 am. Atlanta City officials are merely giving chucks of details to the press yet the hack was noticed due to missing functionality and lack of services revolving around public services.
The ransomware has affected court related documentation and bill payment systems among other systems. According to the City of Atlanta, the outage could affect other networks in due course. Besides, the Citizens of Atlanta City might find it challenging to pay some bills and reach some court associated information.
The SamSam malware works on the network vulnerabilities which a hacker can embed to hold vital areas of infrastructure ransom. The assault differs from other mechanisms that usually affect social engineering vulnerabilities among staff members.
The SamSam malware was for the first time witnessed in 2015 when it applied RSA encryption making files virtually impossible to retrieve. Likes of SamSam among other programs have been accountable for government infrastructure attacks and are known to use cryptos particularly bitcoin to transfer money from the attack.
The assail comes at a moment when other similar attacks have escalated on major places of public infrastructure. In November year 2017, for instance, another hacker demanded a ransom of 1 bitcoin to liberate Sacramento transit system. These attacks may continue particularly targeting public services which are always needed by the public. When it happens, government or other public officials normally have little choice rather than to give in to the demands of hackers.
A more critical instance occurred in December 2017 that entailed a bomb attack in Germany, Potsdam Christmas market where more than 10 million Euros were needed lest the bomb would explode. Even though the bomb failed to explode, the ransom demanded bitcoins entailed a QR code on the package to enable deposit of funds to the attackers' account.
