San Francisco Metro System Hacked with Ransomware [Paid $70,000 in Bitcoin]

[Lauda]

This isn't really a problem with Bitcoin, and should not make Bitcoin look bad. Bitcoin is primarily used in these because there are automated set of tools that help you create malware (e.g. ransomware) and they just take a % cut of the Bitcoin gathered this way. If the attackers were after better anonymity and not script-kiddies, they would not be asking for Bitcoin.
Here is an example of such a website called Tox. However, this website was on sale the last time I encountered it. I'm sure that there are plenty more out there.

I  sat their red faces, because he blamed this "Bitcoin" technology for what happened to him.

A ransomware attack is ridiculously easy to mitigate with a backup (in comparison to other advanced malware). You just need to wipe everything and restore via a backup. If you don't have a backup, then the only one that should be blamed is yourself.

[calkob]

Recently the San Francisco Metro System got Hacked with Ransomware resulting in free rides.

It is yet not clear exactly who was responsible for the attack (besides a pseudonym "Andy Saolis"), but according to local media reports, the agency's computers were being held by ransomware until the MUNI paid the equivalent of more than $73,000 in Bitcoin.

What do you think guys?
Isn't it bad for the bitcoin to be known as a bad thing in our lives?
*If it was posted before move to the correct board.

Not really a bad point, like they say all news is good news, people are wondering what this bitcoin thing is?  lol   fiat money was used by criminals for 100's of years it didnt do fiat any harm.........

[Cereberus]

I am thinking this is an inside job too. I am refusing to believe one of the employees of the SFM was stupid and dumb enough to click an email link just out of the blue. I think employees there are trained before starting to work in such big workplace.

Ransomware is very easy to defend yourself from when you know a few tech things. Also nothing to do with Bitcoin, Bitcoin in this case is just an easy way to blackmail and get paid with. It's a new form of money (internet money that can be converted to cash easily) so that's why hackers who are the most tech knowers will want to use it.

Again, the only fault was from SFM, I have high doubts of an inside job or in the worst a worker there have send this ransomware file to all his colleagues knowing their little level of information regarding ransomware, he may have tried his luck and he has hit the jackpot.

[fiscorcle]

As soon as someone sees ransomware and then they look for "bitcoin" in the news article instantly. And 80% of the time they are right.
Someone was saying this is what Zcash's sole purpose was from it's inception. Created just for the reason of being more anonymous than bitcoin will ever be and being better to demand in such cases.

[TraderBill]

They should feel relieved by the hack

They are aware of the security holes their system have
They paid a heavy price for a hacker instead of invested in cyber-security - most US companies ignore the risks
It was not a terrorist cyber attack that could have been worse.

That is a positive way to look at it. A big fee to a security specialist to help secure their system.

[zahra4577]

It's funny that it's hackers who are forcing mainstream to adopt crypto at virtual gunpoint.

They will not adopt bitcoin,they will adopt better network/system security softwares.They might buy bitcoin to pay for ransome to hackers but one time buy that too forcibly is not adoption IMO

[SmartIphone]

How did they manage to let ransomware into the San Fran metro system? It's just so unbelievable that something like that could happen without some super gross negligence on some employee's part.

They're lucky that the ransomware actually did go and decrypt their files, but at the same time the $70,000 was probably low enough that the designer didn't think that it would be worth screwing the people that paid him. Good on them for that portion.

This is "magic". The virus is spread very fast on the network and these kind of viruses/malwares are the worst one.
And they are made by the most professional hackers because a random/newbie hacker can't do these things.

[Meuh6879]

What do you think guys?

stop use attached files with email ?
they have tried ... but PDF and DOC are too powerfull over ... directors (specially PPS files).







Randsomeware works because of people ... not because of machine.

[btcfunk2]

There annual budget is probably 100x that. $70,000.00 is nothing to them. And the ransomers new that. But yeah they look stupid.

[davis196]

Recently the San Francisco Metro System got Hacked with Ransomware resulting in free rides.

It is yet not clear exactly who was responsible for the attack (besides a pseudonym "Andy Saolis"), but according to local media reports, the agency's computers were being held by ransomware until the MUNI paid the equivalent of more than $73,000 in Bitcoin.

What do you think guys?
Isn't it bad for the bitcoin to be known as a bad thing in our lives?
*If it was posted before move to the correct board.

This is good and bad for bitcoin.

It`s bad becasue hackers use it and it`s good for the same reason. Just kidding.

By the way,what exactly is a ransomware?Malware that asks for ransome?

[thejaytiesto]

Recently the San Francisco Metro System got Hacked with Ransomware resulting in free rides.

It is yet not clear exactly who was responsible for the attack (besides a pseudonym "Andy Saolis"), but according to local media reports, the agency's computers were being held by ransomware until the MUNI paid the equivalent of more than $73,000 in Bitcoin.

What do you think guys?
Isn't it bad for the bitcoin to be known as a bad thing in our lives?
*If it was posted before move to the correct board.

Well, with every revolutionary technology there are drawbacks. What we need is stronger software protection against ramsomware, the stupid thing to do would be to get rid of bitcoin. It's like, why not get rid of the entire internet so that way we can avoid all hackers? No thanks, just fix your shit up, but dont blame it on bitcoin.

[talkbitcoin]

this is the only downside of bitcoin, the fact that its anonymity is allowing criminals to get away with things like this and use bitcoin as their filthy methods to extort people out of their money. and the worst part of it is what the media is going to do with news like this when they get their hands on it, they will show bitcoin as a criminal money and it hurts bitcoin's reputation a lot.

[400actforsale]

Sorry for their loss In fact my computer have hacked for bitcoin ransom before, while we decided not to pay it and finally found a way to overcome that.

These hacking-news is indeed having negative impacts on bitcoin's public image, especially those bitcoin haters who don't like us just because they are 'new' (they are older people who also hate Internet etc.). However for the only good side is that there will be some buy orders on BTC and it will rise in price...

[severaldetails]

Recently the San Francisco Metro System got Hacked with Ransomware resulting in free rides.

It is yet not clear exactly who was responsible for the attack (besides a pseudonym "Andy Saolis"), but according to local media reports, the agency's computers were being held by ransomware until the MUNI paid the equivalent of more than $73,000 in Bitcoin.

What do you think guys?
Isn't it bad for the bitcoin to be known as a bad thing in our lives?
*If it was posted before move to the correct board.

This is good and bad for bitcoin.

It`s bad becasue hackers use it and it`s good for the same reason. Just kidding.

By the way,what exactly is a ransomware?Malware that asks for ransome?

Ransomware is a software that encrypts your hard drive and every other attached storage device.
In order to get access to your data again, the software asks you to pay a certain amount (usually in bitcoin).
After that you get a key that decrypts your drives again.
At least that is what the software tells you. If you really get it, I would doubt that.

[Kprawn]

This isn't really a problem with Bitcoin, and should not make Bitcoin look bad. Bitcoin is primarily used in these because there are automated set of tools that help you create malware (e.g. ransomware) and they just take a % cut of the Bitcoin gathered this way. If the attackers were after better anonymity and not script-kiddies, they would not be asking for Bitcoin.
Here is an example of such a website called Tox. However, this website was on sale the last time I encountered it. I'm sure that there are plenty more out there.

I  sat their red faces, because he blamed this "Bitcoin" technology for what happened to him.

A ransomware attack is ridiculously easy to mitigate with a backup (in comparison to other advanced malware). You just need to wipe everything and restore via a backup. If you don't have a backup, then the only one that should be blamed is yourself.

Normal backup is not good enough. You will have to do full backups daily and weekly and monthly and store them offline. If you do

incremental backups, and the Malware is replicated, then all your preceding copies will be infected. This way, you can go back to previous

copies, until you find a copy that were not infected. Some people just overwrite their previous backups and then include the Malware in all

subsequent copies. { Then they cannot go back to previous "clean" backups to restore }   

[Rinder]

It is bad for Bitcoin. We had visitors last week, and the husband did not know that I am a Bitcoin enthusiast. He started to tell me that he lost

all his Holiday videos and pics, due to some virus that blocked his files and then they wanted.. "something called Bitcoin" to unlock his files. I

sat their red faces, because he blamed this "Bitcoin" technology for what happened to him. I explained to him what Bitcoin was, and that the

technology was not to be blamed for the hack, but he did not want to hear anything about Bitcoin, because he blamed it for his loss.  

Even bitcoin get the famous because the hacker information lost, we can see how the fiat system are weeks against hackers, for one side i do see bitcoin as revolutionary currencie, but for other side now hackers can get their money without be traced, this makes bitcoin a big problem, but those big companies should think into a way to protect their system, improve the security, instead of being paying to hackers, but they dont learn security its the main problem, and where they have to invest.

[unamis76]

Things like these have been happening over, and over, and over again. The conclusion we can take from all these ransom cases is that this goes way beyond Bitcoin, it's about people's mentality who still prefer to be sorry than safe. Companies and governments see tech employees as "uneeded" or "only fit for emergencies" and simply don't hire them. When problems arise, they start calling these people like they would call 911 if somebody was dying...

They didn't invest on their security and probably didn't even have backups of important files...

[nara1892]

Recently the San Francisco Metro System got Hacked with Ransomware resulting in free rides.

It is yet not clear exactly who was responsible for the attack (besides a pseudonym "Andy Saolis"), but according to local media reports, the agency's computers were being held by ransomware until the MUNI paid the equivalent of more than $73,000 in Bitcoin.

What do you think guys?
Isn't it bad for the bitcoin to be known as a bad thing in our lives?
*If it was posted before move to the correct board.

it is a big amount of money to be paid for data. but probably the data contains more important things than $73,000.

yeah, it is bad for bitcoin to be known as a bad things. that makes our family and people around think that we are criminals because we use bitcoin.

[deadsilent]

It's funny that it's hackers who are forcing mainstream to adopt crypto at virtual gunpoint.

And by that, they dont need to take the ransom money personally. This is how smart the people are today. This is the real problem of bitcoin. It can be use for any crimes. But it is not the fault of bitcoin. It is the fault of San Francisco Metro System because they did not secure their files.

[Dmitry.Vastov]

For sure they are going to blame bitcoin. This things really makes bitcoin so bad. But bitcoin has nothing to do with this mess. This is just a bridge to tranfer funds or the ransom. Its the fault of the San Francisco Metro System in the first place. If they have a better security., this is not going to happen.