extortion software has become in recent years one of the biggest problems in the world of IT. The pests lay the computer lame, encrypt files and share the data only against the payment of a ransom again. After more and more often also to important facilities such as hospitals or city administrations have been the victims of such attacks, achieved a attack in Texas now, a completely new dimension: the Same 23 cities were placed at the same time lame.
The attack began on Friday morning, reported the New York Times. On Monday, the Texas Department of Information Resources reported that in 23 cities in the U.S. state would be affected major systems of a blackmail Trojan. Therefore, you try desperately to get the affected systems up and Running again. By Tuesday afternoon, the had succeeded, but only in one of the affected cities.
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Who exactly is behind the attack is still unclear. However, one thing is for sure: The attack will go back to a “single Aggressor” (in the Original “Threat Actor”), so the Texas authorities. The attack was coordinated, are the investigators sure. Whether it is a single Hacker or a – possibly state – sponsored group, is now examined with the help of the Federal police FBI.
Details of the attack, there is not out of determination tactical reasons, so far. Also which parts of the municipality are affected, is unclear. Apparently, it is for individual authorities. The cities are not placed according to the authorities, completely lame, as was the case in the US city of Baltimore in the spring of the case. In addition, it does not handle the smaller cities, Texas cities were among the Victims. “There are a handful of areas that are affected,” said a spokesman for the Texas authorities.
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“The largest coordinated attack”
Nevertheless, if we take the case seriously. The Governor called out the second-highest alert level, which is why the Federal authorities were turned on. Cyber security teams would be sent to the respective locations, the authorities declared. “It is quite clear the biggest coordinated attack”, said security expert Allan Liska, the location opposite of the “NYT”. “The Criminals are copying each other like that. This should be the beginning of a new Phase, we should have to with a growing number of such attacks to expect.”
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Actually, the number of affected state Agencies is increasing. As an extortion Trojan, started to enforce only just met, it is only by chance commercial or critical Places such as hospitals. But soon the hackers realized the potential of the high-profile targets. While the hacked computer to bring in Private-just a few Hundred Euro per infection, are at companies and authorities quickly in significantly higher sums of money in it. Not to pay
but it can be even more expensive, with the removal of The pests and saving the data is often difficult and lengthy, so it is at all possible. $ 100,000 of the blackmailer from Baltimore asked about. The city refused to pay – and so quickly, a damage of about $ 18 million was incurred. If one of the Texas cities has paid, is not known. The authorities refused to comment.
source: New York Times, Texas Department of Information Resources
topics in this article, the FBI Texas hospitals New York Times Trojans Baltimore New in Digital
