Hacker Extorts Bitcoin Ransom From Illinois Police Department.

[lockedout]

MIDLOTHIAN, Ill. (AP) — A suburban Chicago police department paid a hacker a $500 ransom to restore access to data on a police computer that the hacker had disabled through the use of an increasingly popular type of virus.

The police department in Midlothian, a village southwest of Chicago, was hit in January by a form of the Cryptoware virus, which encrypted some files on a department computer, leaving them inaccessible without the encryption key, the Chicago Tribune reported.

If I was that hacker I would do this everyday, who the fuck pays $500.00 bucks?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/0...n_6730344.html

[cubby]

MIDLOTHIAN, Ill. (AP) — A suburban Chicago police department paid a hacker a $500 ransom to restore access to data on a police computer that the hacker had disabled through the use of an increasingly popular type of virus.

The police department in Midlothian, a village southwest of Chicago, was hit in January by a form of the Cryptoware virus, which encrypted some files on a department computer, leaving them inaccessible without the encryption key, the Chicago Tribune reported.

If I was that hacker I would do this everyday, who the fuck pays $500.00 bucks?

It's possible that the police feel certain that they will catch the hacker(s). Silly police.

[Jonnusthegreat]

Misleading title and picture. There is no mention of bitcoin?

[lockedout]

Misleading title and picture. There is no mention of bitcoin?

Sorry I forgot to put the link, I added it.

"An unknown hacker said that if the department wanted to unencrypt the files, it had to pay a ransom in bitcoin, a digital currency that is virtually untraceable, said Calvin Harden Jr., an IT vendor who works with the village.

The village had to make a tough decision, Harden said, and chose to make the payment because going after the hacker might have been more trouble than it was worth."

[Tierbook]

Misleading title and picture. There is no mention of bitcoin?

I don't even see a link, the one he has links back to this thread.....

[Jonnusthegreat]

You just linked to this thread again.

[lockedout]

You just linked to this thread again.

It's in the OP.

[Deleted]

Misleading title and picture. There is no mention of bitcoin?

The reason its called Bitcoin ransom is because the ransom is being paid in bitcoin. That is how the scam/hack works

[cubby]

Sorry I forgot to put the link, I added it.

"An unknown hacker said that if the department wanted to unencrypt the files, it had to pay a ransom in bitcoin, a digital currency that is virtually untraceable, said Calvin Harden Jr., an IT vendor who works with the village.

The village had to make a tough decision, Harden said, and chose to make the payment because going after the hacker might have been more trouble than it was worth."

Sets a pretty awful precedent. Did they not have the number for the FBI.

[GarGar]

Heh, as mentioned in the article, it's a common virus. Highly doubtful the hacker was intending to extort a police department. Also highly doubtful that they actually needed to pay the ransom to get their stuff decrypted. Often these viruses are not all that sophisticated, and the decryption key is stored on the actual computer. A computer security professional probably could have gotten the job done.

[Dys]

So, some Illinois law enforcement establishments are technologically inept.

You know which state to strike now Cyber Criminals. You have a good year, or so, to milk this stupid state for all its worth before someone forces them to catch on. Get to it.

[PACOX]

The hacker was smart in that $500 isn't enough for the PD to pay to have the problem go away. You're note going to negotiate with someone if they demand a large sum of money, you might give into them if their demands are small if only to go after them later.

[glo]

This is sensationalized nonsense, which you should have been fully aware of after reading it yourself.

A proper title would have been:

"Illinois Police Department contracts an untargeted, common ransomware virus on facility computer. Pays to get data back because their IT team is awful and didn't set up redundant data backup."

The "hacker" didn't single out the PD, or even personally extort them. Some dumbass just browsed a shady site on the department's computer and contracted malware.

[Flutterguy]

Basically, PD has an awful ITD.

[Deleted]

Dont blame the IT team
Its the retards fault who clicked that link

[crunk]

Dont blame the IT team
Its the retards fault who clicked that link

i think its safe to say they all fucked up

[Independent voter]

Can you imagine the head of IT, the guy who had to explain this to his superiors?

"Well police chief O'Malley, we have two options, forget about the data or pay the $500."

How awkward is that?

[Flutterguy]

Dont blame the IT team
Its the retards fault who clicked that link

Any IT team worth their salt doesn't trust a user further than they can throw them.

[Deleted]

MIDLOTHIAN, Ill. (AP) — A suburban Chicago police department paid a hacker a $500 ransom to restore access to data on a police computer that the hacker had disabled through the use of an increasingly popular type of virus.

The police department in Midlothian, a village southwest of Chicago, was hit in January by a form of the Cryptoware virus, which encrypted some files on a department computer, leaving them inaccessible without the encryption key, the Chicago Tribune reported.

If I was that hacker I would do this everyday, who the fuck pays $500.00 bucks?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/0...n_6730344.html

They do it every day, all year round. Though they don't really hack computers, they lure users to websites that infect their computers with cyptowarevirus' and then collect the "ransom" in terms of anonymous bitcoins. The "hacker" never knows the identidy of his victims, only that he cashes in on anyone willing to pay. We have had similar cases overhere, they never pay up due to the fact that if people pay up the "hacker" gets encouraged to make even more complicated cryptoware that can infect even more users.

[Tokru]

They do it every day, all year round. Though they don't really hack computers, they lure users to websites that infect their computers with cyptowarevirus' and then collect the "ransom" in terms of anonymous bitcoins. The "hacker" never knows the identidy of his victims, only that he cashes in on anyone willing to pay. We have had similar cases overhere, they never pay up due to the fact that if people pay up the "hacker" gets encouraged to make even more complicated cryptoware that can infect even more users.

How does that even work? The amount of people using bitcoins is miniscule. Sounds like a lot of effort to catch the one guy in millions who may be able to pay the ransom.