[2015-04-07] Boston Globe: Their data held hostage, Tewksbury police pay...

[pawel7777]

Their data held hostage, Tewksbury police pay the ransom

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/04/06/tewksbury-police-pay-bitcoin-ransom-hackers/PkcE1GBTOfU52p31F9FM5L/story.html

At first, the problems with the Tewksbury Police Department system — difficulty calling up arrest and incident records — seemed to be just the usual system crankiness. No big deal.

But it persisted, and a technician was called in.

That was when the menacing message popped up on the screen, an explanation in the form of a ransom note:

“Your personal files are encrypted,” it read. “File decryption costs ~ $500.”

It continued: “If you really value your data, then we suggest you do not waste valuable time searching for other solutions because they do not exist.”
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[unamis76]

Things like these have been happening constantly in the last few months. I don't know what's worse: hackers taking advantage of Bitcoin to do these things or police and justice departments without basic malware protection... That's what happens when you cut corners while building systems with sensitive data. And when you have people accessing things they shouldn't.

[pawel7777]

Things like these have been happening constantly in the last few months. I don't know what's worse: hackers taking advantage of Bitcoin to do these things or police and justice departments without basic malware protection... That's what happens when you cut corners while building systems with sensitive data. And when you have people accessing things they shouldn't.

Look on the bright side.

After few such incidents all the public bodies will have to step their game up and improve the data security/handling.

Also, few more people (in this case police officers) were forced to learn how to use bitcoin, not to mention they used taxpayers money to pump the price a little bit 

[1Referee]

Things like these have been happening constantly in the last few months. I don't know what's worse: hackers taking advantage of Bitcoin to do these things or police and justice departments without basic malware protection... That's what happens when you cut corners while building systems with sensitive data. And when you have people accessing things they shouldn't.

Look on the bright side.

After few such incidents all the public bodies will have to step their game up and improve the data security/handling.

Also, few more people (in this case police officers) were forced to learn how to use bitcoin, not to mention they used taxpayers money to pump the price a little bit 

Police departments around the world are trying to cut on expenses where they can. They only forget that online criminality is increasing every year with huge numbers.

Their hardware is old, they run old or not up2date software. It's simply asking for problems. Educating the police to know the basics of online security would be quite helpful.