Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why Riviera Beach agreed to pay a $600,000 ransom payment to regain data access
Palm Beach Post ^ | 6-20-19 | Tony Doris

Posted on 06/23/2019 3:32:18 PM PDT by dynachrome

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, “whose value changes daily.”

(Excerpt) Read more at palmbeachpost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: bitcoin; cryptocurrency; florida; ransomware; rivierabeach
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-39 next last
Full title: Why Riviera Beach agreed to pay a $600,000 ransom payment to regain data access... and will it work?
1 posted on 06/23/2019 3:32:18 PM PDT by dynachrome
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: dynachrome

“no explanation of whether the city has any guarantee that the ransomers will release it if paid.”

Probably hold ‘em up for more.


2 posted on 06/23/2019 3:34:17 PM PDT by dynachrome (Build the wall, deport them all.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dynachrome

Where did they send the check?


3 posted on 06/23/2019 3:36:26 PM PDT by Libloather (Global warming is AWESOME!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dynachrome

The city already planned to spend $300,000 for equipment replacements in the next budget and will accelerate that expense, Councilwoman Julie Botel said. Much of the existing hardware was a half-dozen years old and vulnerable to another malware attack, so it was time to replace it anyway, she said.

None of that will make an ion of difference in a ransomware attack, but the city council and the writer are ignorant of this. Surprised they didn’t blame “Russians”.


4 posted on 06/23/2019 3:36:51 PM PDT by Flick Lives (CNN is not healthy for children and other living things)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Flick Lives

The guess is it was a “click on a phoney email” thing.


5 posted on 06/23/2019 3:40:17 PM PDT by dynachrome (Build the wall, deport them all.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: dynachrome
...and will it work?

These generally do, only because no one else will ever pay a ransom if they don't. That is not to say the victim is going to be left alone afterward. But as Baltimore just found out, it can be many times more expensive to fix if you haven't been doing your IT homework than it is simply to pay the ransom.

Diligent, thorough backups and keeping the patch levels up to date and this doesn't happen. Laziness and lack of professionalism and it does. Choose.

6 posted on 06/23/2019 3:42:33 PM PDT by Billthedrill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dynachrome

A relative of mine predicted this some time ago.

He said corporations, governments, businesses would rue the day they gave up their control over THEIR OWN data.


7 posted on 06/23/2019 3:43:58 PM PDT by Maris Crane
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dynachrome

Baltimore suffered a ransomware attack a few weeks ago. Far as I know, they never paid the ransom. $70,000. Yea, the price of a new luxury car.

They never got around to installing the patch from Microsoft and it’s cost tens of millions of dollars so far.

They are asking people to estimate their water bills and hand deliver the money to their office. Yea, I’ll get right on that Sparky.

Total gross incompetence at many levels.


8 posted on 06/23/2019 3:44:01 PM PDT by cyclotic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Billthedrill

Daily backup saved the area I worked at from similar trouble, though it seemed to be a simple gather the address book and send itself out again type of attack. One wrong click.


9 posted on 06/23/2019 3:48:11 PM PDT by dynachrome (Build the wall, deport them all.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Maris Crane

This sort of thing could crash the system hard.


10 posted on 06/23/2019 3:52:37 PM PDT by dynachrome (Build the wall, deport them all.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: dynachrome

I’m sure this reveals my ignorance but I have to ask:

Why are these ransoms paid in Bitcoin? Why do these news articles always say Bitcoin is untraceable? Isn’t everything we do on the internet traceable somehow? Including Bitcoin payments?

Are the people who run Bitcoin completely outside the jurisdiction of any law enforcement anywhere in the world? Even if Bitcoin payments are made anonymously, wouldn’t law enforcement somewhere be able to subpoena records, and drill down and find out who was extracting Ransom?

Pardon my apparent ignorance on the subject, but none of the news stories I’ve heard about various Bitcoin ransoms have ever addressed the questions I’ve just posed here.


11 posted on 06/23/2019 3:53:00 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dilbert San Diego

I believe bitcoin is much less traceable as it goes thru various anonymous servers which do not track anything and if the bad guys are in some craphole like pakistan, well, the police won’t care much about Americans getting ripped off.


12 posted on 06/23/2019 3:55:39 PM PDT by dynachrome (Build the wall, deport them all.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Billthedrill
"Diligent, thorough backups and keeping the patch levels up to date and this doesn't happen. Laziness and lack of professionalism and it does."

That is the description of 99.9999% of IT shops (of which another 99.9999% is dominated by H1B visa holders).

13 posted on 06/23/2019 3:55:45 PM PDT by SecondAmendment (This just proves my latest theory ... LEFTISTS RUIN EVERYTHING!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: dynachrome

Good reason for a small city to go back to paper records or disconnect vital information from the internet.


14 posted on 06/23/2019 3:58:54 PM PDT by captain_dave
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dilbert San Diego

And from wiki, a whole bunch of info on bitcoin. not regulated and a fair amount of fraud over time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin


15 posted on 06/23/2019 3:59:02 PM PDT by dynachrome (Build the wall, deport them all.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
Thanks dynachrome.

16 posted on 06/23/2019 4:02:04 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Libloather

To the insurer, as that is their deductible amount. The ransom seekers are being paid in bitcoin only.


17 posted on 06/23/2019 4:17:51 PM PDT by Robert DeLong
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Billthedrill

Just another example of government ineptitude. Nobody will be fired for these screw-ups. Nobody backed up the data? Nobody patched the software? Nobody was working to keep hackers out of the systems? We really should be privatizing almost all government services.


18 posted on 06/23/2019 4:27:24 PM PDT by monkeyshine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: dynachrome

Can I ask another stupid question?

Where do you buy Bitcoin? Do you have to buy Bitcoin in American money or the official currency of some other country? Who sells Bitcoin to you? Couldn’t something like this be a racket, in which the criminal element sells you the Bitcoin needed to pay the ransom that they are trying to extort from you?


19 posted on 06/23/2019 4:33:41 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: monkeyshine
Just another example of government ineptitude.

Just throwing it out there, but what if it was an inside job? Larceny disguised as ineptitude is a common way for the government to steal tax dollars from projects.


20 posted on 06/23/2019 4:45:20 PM PDT by Richard Kimball
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-39 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson