Maine cops pay Bitcoin ransom to end office hostage drama

[LakeBTC]

Normally, a police department in the United States would not consider paying a ransom. Typically this is not advised, but in the event of what happened recently in Maine, apparently, they felt they had no choice.

Indeed, it appears several police departments in Maine had to pay approximately $300 in ransom money to computer hackers so that they could get their police records back. This includes the computers within the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and the computers at the Houlton Police Department.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/13/us_police_ransomware/

[p2pbucks]

unfortunately , they don't have any other effective ways to unlock the data 
Maybe they've learnt to backup data offline from this lesson

[GÜNther.Danish]

I would like to see anything interesting in the police records 

[Undermood]

It is so ironic that the police department in the United States has to give in to the hacker's ransom requirement. It is a shame for our bitcoines that the hackers and scammers in the crypto world is tarnishing the bitcoin's reputation.

[Amph]

i'm still shocked about the fact that there are still many people and autorithy, that don't know about the importance of backup, the first thing you do when creating something is "backuping" it

cops failed even before doing the backup, he failed at not being aware of that link, how come in 2015 there are still people that fall in to the usual email virus trap, it should be avoided easily, by scrolling your mouse over the link....

[twister]

It is so ironic that the police department in the United States has to give in to the hacker's ransom requirement. It is a shame for our bitcoines that the hackers and scammers in the crypto world is tarnishing the bitcoin's reputation.

So instead of Bitcoins if they were to demand any other currency like Dollars or Euros or any other Altcoin would that have changed anything here?

There have been kidnappings and Hijackings in the past where terrorists have demanded ransom in other currencies, were the reputations of those currencies tarnished?

I don't know why when Criminals and Unsocial elements use Bitcoin, it is always said to have bad effect on Bitcoin. BTC is a currency and it will be used by all types of people. The people to blame here are the hackers and lack of security by these institutions and their inability to keep back-ups.

[Miracal]

This sort of malware typically scans computers and networks for documents, generates a random encryption key per file, uses those to encrypt the data, and then encrypts the keys using a public-private key pair. Only the crims have the private key needed to unscramble the documents, and it costs money to obtain that, effectively holding the information to ransom.

Even the virus authors are applying the cryptographic concept.

In the meantime, never, ever execute an attachment or download from an untrusted source. ®

It seems the only way we can prevent such kind of attacks is by yourself. Another things we should do is to back up our profiles regularly in case.

[Sithara007]

Normally, a police department in the United States would not consider paying a ransom. Typically this is not advised, but in the event of what happened recently in Maine, apparently, they felt they had no choice.

Indeed, it appears several police departments in Maine had to pay approximately $300 in ransom money to computer hackers so that they could get their police records back. This includes the computers within the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and the computers at the Houlton Police Department.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/13/us_police_ransomware/

They might have learned a hard lesson now. They should hire a professional hacker to find out loopholes in their system who can also fix them.

[S4VV4S]

Kids in our days.....

They hack the police department, steal all their files, and only ask $300 as ransom to give it back......

Plain stupid and a waste of talent. 

[OrientA]

Kids in our days.....

They hack the police department, steal all their files, and only ask $300 as ransom to give it back......

Plain stupid and a waste of talent.  

The hacker hacked more than 1 entity. That is multiple of $300.

[chennan]

Kids in our days.....

They hack the police department, steal all their files, and only ask $300 as ransom to give it back......

Plain stupid and a waste of talent. 

Please read the article before posting!

This sort of malware typically scans computers and networks for documents, generates a random encryption key per file, uses those to encrypt the data, and then encrypts the keys using a public-private key pair. "No personal data was mined - it looks like they didn't take any information," Brackett said.

They didn't steal any files and only encrypt all the file on the original servers using random generated key.

[hua_hui]

Normally, a police department in the United States would not consider paying a ransom. Typically this is not advised, but in the event of what happened recently in Maine, apparently, they felt they had no choice.

Indeed, it appears several police departments in Maine had to pay approximately $300 in ransom money to computer hackers so that they could get their police records back. This includes the computers within the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and the computers at the Houlton Police Department.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/13/us_police_ransomware/

They might have learned a hard lesson now. They should hire a professional hacker to find out loopholes in their system who can also fix them.

To secure the system, we normally need to install the antivirus and firewall software. But the user needs to be trained to have some extent of awareness of the potential virus files. The most important part is to back up your important data.

[Hazir]

Haha. It is nice of that hacker that he only wanted $300 and not something like $1.0000 or something more ridiculous. He sure knows Police budget well. What I did not like is that bicoin is associated recently only with bad incidents. And it hurts its image in general media. Normal people would think bitcoin is some sort of ideal currency for thieves and terrorists... not good.

[yayayo]

Haha. It is nice of that hacker that he only wanted $300 and not something like $1.0000 or something more ridiculous. He sure knows Police budget well. What I did not like is that bicoin is associated recently only with bad incidents. And it hurts its image in general media. Normal people would think bitcoin is some sort of ideal currency for thieves and terrorists... not good.

Only weak minded people will think that. The stronger minded will realize that it is an indicator of true value and also happens with "legal currency" to a much greater extent. The weak minded people are easily influenced by public opinion and will still adopt Bitcoin at a later date when it goes mainstream. So I don't think it has a negative influence.

It's shameful knowing that police departments do nothing to effectively protect and backup the sensible data they hold.

ya.ya.yo!

[Hazir]

No, it really does not matter whether cops failed to keep backups of their data or not here. All what matter, and all that potential non-bitcoin user will see is that hacker used bitcoin and get away with it. That means bitcoin is a tool for evil men which allows them to be more evil because they are hard to find! - It will be the general public thought. And I think it is partially reason why bitcoin price is so low lately. Because people doubt it.

[r3wt]

It is so ironic that the police department in the United States has to give in to the hacker's ransom requirement. It is a shame for our bitcoines that the hackers and scammers in the crypto world is tarnishing the bitcoin's reputation.

Local and State governments require their developers to have degrees in CS. Naturally, they get the tier 2 talent, greenhorns straight out of a CS degree who don't have the experience to latch on at a real company yet. As such, the quality of their architecture is usually suspect.

[Sithara007]

Kids in our days.....

They hack the police department, steal all their files, and only ask $300 as ransom to give it back......

Plain stupid and a waste of talent. 

They might be doing that for fun and not for money. Or they just wanted to make them aware of their security loopholes.

[ashour]

Kids in our days.....

They hack the police department, steal all their files, and only ask $300 as ransom to give it back......

Plain stupid and a waste of talent. 

I agree, what is the point to hack the police department, steal the fils and only ask for a $300 ransom ? They could have got as much as 10k, they probably copied all the files and are selling them on the deepweb or some sort.

[spazzdla]

Kids in our days.....

They hack the police department, steal all their files, and only ask $300 as ransom to give it back......

Plain stupid and a waste of talent.  

The hacker hacked more than 1 entity. That is multiple of $300.

Even $3000 is peanuts.

[ashour]

Kids in our days.....

They hack the police department, steal all their files, and only ask $300 as ransom to give it back......

Plain stupid and a waste of talent.  

The hacker hacked more than 1 entity. That is multiple of $300.

Even $3000 is peanuts.

Yep they will probably make the big money when they sell the files on a deepweb market. That's why they accepted such a small amount , so police losses interest into the case and can move on.