RUSH: “Riviera Beach, Florida,” dangerously nearby “agreed to pay a $600,000 ransom payment to regain data access. The Riviera Beach City Council authorized the city’s insurer to pay nearly $600,000 worth of ransom to regain access to data walled off through an attack on the city’s computer systems. In a meeting Monday night announced only days before, the board voted 5-0 to authorize the city insurer to pay 65 bitcoins, a hard-to-track cryptocurrency valued at approximately $592,000.
“An additional $25,000 would come out of the city budget, to cover its policy deductible. Without discussion on the merits, the board tackled the agenda item in two minutes, voted and moved on. The dollar amount was not mentioned before or after the vote, only that the insurer would pay through bitcoins…” They paid $600,000 in ransom. I didn’t know these ransomware people were even charging that much anymore. Normally they’re down to $500, $750, a thousand bucks because they want people to pay up, and most people are not gonna pay this kind of money. But the city of Riviera Beach did it.
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