According to what was reported on March 23, hackers have shut down important computer systems in Atlanta, USA and are demanding $51,000 worth of Bitcoin to reactivate the affected systems.
Hackers shut down government computers in Atlanta
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced the attack at a press conference on Thursday, March 22.. He told reporters that officials did not know the extent of the attack and whether anyone’s personal data or bank accounts had been compromised.. “We have all been subjected to this attack.”
The attack was first noticed on March 22, at 5 am.. The City of Atlanta said the outages impacted the systems some customers use to pay their bills and access court-related information.
The City of Atlanta is currently experiencing outages on various customer facing applications, including some that customers may use to pay bills or access court-related information. We will post any updates as we receive them. pic.twitter.com/kc51rojhBl
— City of Atlanta, GA (@Cityofatlanta) March 22, 2018
City officers, FBI, The US Department of Homeland Security and Microsoft are reportedly working to determine the extent of the breach and how to resolve it.. On March 23, city officials urged citizens to keep a close eye on their personal information and to monitor it if they believed the personal information inside the accounts might have been hacked.
Requested Bitcoin
The situation is not yet resolved.. Bitcoin is currently trading at an average of $8,500, which means it will cost around 6 Bitcoins, the requested ransom.
This is the first to hold municipal computer systems hostage in exchange for cryptocurrency. not hackers. In November 2017, a hacker attacked the Sacramento Regional Transit system, demanding 1 Bitcoin, worth $8,000 at the time of the attack, and demanding ransom.
A worse example of ransom for Bitcoin is a parcel bomber in Germany. In a message sent to the Potsdam Christmas market in December 2017, he demanded a ransom of 10 million euros in Bitcoin. The package that failed in the explosion contained a QR code. The package contained explosives such as fireworks and nails.
Cointelegraph