Early last month, hackers infected somewhere around 10,000 Baltimore, Maryland city computers with a “file-locking” ransomware variant called RobbinHood. Those hackers demanded a ransom of 13 bitcoin (at the time worth around $76,000, and today around $100,000) that would go up over time if it was not promptly paid out—and which the city refused to pay out.
According to a Wednesday report in Ars Technica, Baltimore Mayor Bernard “Jack” Young told reporters on Tuesday that crucial city services were now open for business, despite ongoing disruption. City Finance Director Henry Raymond added that some email accounts and phone lines had been restored, though many municipal payment and finance systems had to be operated in manual modes. Ars wrote that Young estimated the ongoing damage to be over $18 million, including “$8 million lost because of deferred or lost revenue while the city was unable to process payments.”
Notable concerns included problems with access to parking and traffic violation databases, which along with some other systems were for the time being dependent on “paper documents and manual workarounds,” Ars wrote. Additionally, a slow and labor-intensive process of authenticating and restoring login credentials for around 10,000 city employees is still ongoing and may not be complete until the end of the week:
gizmodo.com
by Tom McKay
Wednesday 9:50pm