Ransomware is a threat that you truly have to take seriously. If you don’t you may have to face to prospect of losing your data, or having to pay up to those who create ransomware. The University Of Calgary did the latter when they found themselves the victim of a ransomware attack:
Linda Dalgetty, the school’s vice-president of finance and services, said the cyberattack that crippled multiple systems on May 28 used so-called ransomware, which locks or encrypts computers and networks until a monetary ransom is paid.
She said officials agreed to pay the ransom to ensure critical systems could be restored, but noted it will take some time for the university’s IT staff to apply the encryption keys to the infected machines.
“What happens is you pay the ransom and the bad guys physically provide the keys,” Dalgetty said Tuesday, noting more than 100 computers were affected by the virus.
“At this point, we do have some encrypted machines. We have not used any of the decryption keys.”
Dalgetty said university IT teams have been working around the clock for more than a week trying to fix the bug that affected email, Skype, wireless networks and other services. Users of university-issued computers were also advised to leave them off while under threat from the hackers.
In order to receive the keys, the school paid the equivalent of $20,000 CDN in Bitcoins, a digital currency considered largely anonymous and untraceable. As of Wednesday, the price in Canadian dollars for one Bitcoin is $739.65.
I can see why they’d pay up. They likely would have no choice as they have stuff like research data and the like that may or may not be backed up. That’s likely why they were targeted by ransomware writers. You can fully expect these sorts of attacks to escalate because at present, they are easy to pull off and there’s no way to trace the attackers. That makes this a very dangerous time for individuals and institutions alike.
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This entry was posted on June 8, 2016 at 9:47 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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University Of Calgary Pays Ransom For Their Data
Ransomware is a threat that you truly have to take seriously. If you don’t you may have to face to prospect of losing your data, or having to pay up to those who create ransomware. The University Of Calgary did the latter when they found themselves the victim of a ransomware attack:
Linda Dalgetty, the school’s vice-president of finance and services, said the cyberattack that crippled multiple systems on May 28 used so-called ransomware, which locks or encrypts computers and networks until a monetary ransom is paid.
She said officials agreed to pay the ransom to ensure critical systems could be restored, but noted it will take some time for the university’s IT staff to apply the encryption keys to the infected machines.
“What happens is you pay the ransom and the bad guys physically provide the keys,” Dalgetty said Tuesday, noting more than 100 computers were affected by the virus.
“At this point, we do have some encrypted machines. We have not used any of the decryption keys.”
Dalgetty said university IT teams have been working around the clock for more than a week trying to fix the bug that affected email, Skype, wireless networks and other services. Users of university-issued computers were also advised to leave them off while under threat from the hackers.
In order to receive the keys, the school paid the equivalent of $20,000 CDN in Bitcoins, a digital currency considered largely anonymous and untraceable. As of Wednesday, the price in Canadian dollars for one Bitcoin is $739.65.
I can see why they’d pay up. They likely would have no choice as they have stuff like research data and the like that may or may not be backed up. That’s likely why they were targeted by ransomware writers. You can fully expect these sorts of attacks to escalate because at present, they are easy to pull off and there’s no way to trace the attackers. That makes this a very dangerous time for individuals and institutions alike.
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This entry was posted on June 8, 2016 at 9:47 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.