Texas is hit with ransomware attack as at least 20 local governments come under 'coordinated' cyber

[EvilEyeFleegle]

Interesting..and this on top of the massive outage experienced by the Customs and Border Protection:

Texas is hit with ransomware attack as at least 20 local governments come under 'coordinated' cyber assault

"Texas has been hit with a wave of ransomware attacks targeting at least 20 local government entities.
The Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) said late Friday that it is leading the response to a 'coordinated ransomware attack' that is crippling critical government infrastructure across the state.
Ransomware disables computer networks and holds them hostage in demand for payment.
'Currently, DIR, the Texas Military Department, and the Texas A&M University System’s Cyberresponse and Security Operations Center teams are deploying resources to the most critically impacted jurisdictions,' the department said in a statement.
The department urged local jurisdictions who have been impacted to contact their local TDEM Disaster District Coordinator.
'DIR is fully committed to respond swiftly to this event and provide the necessary resources to bring these entities back online,' the agency said.
It was not immediately clear which cities had been impacted by the attacks and what entity is suspected of perpetrating them.
A spokesman for DIR did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com on Saturday.
The attack came within hours of a massive failure of U.S. Customs and Border Protection computers that caused huge travel delays across the country - although the federal agency has insisted that the outage was not 'malicious' in nature.
'The affected systems are coming back online and travelers are being processed. CBP will continue to monitor the incident. There is no indication the disruption was malicious in nature at this time,' CBP said in a statement at 6.30pm ET on Friday."

 

[JGalt]

Obviously the work of left-wing terrorists. They used to bomb those government facilities, now that just attack them through the internet.

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

Obviously the work of left-wing terrorists. They used to bomb those government facilities, now that just attack them through the internet.

I question the use of the word, "obviously'. as nothing is obvious at present. Ransomware..could be a robbery.

As for bombing govt. buildings...OKC ring a bell??

 

[JGalt]

Obviously the work of left-wing terrorists. They used to bomb those government facilities, now that just attack them through the internet.

I question the use of the word, "obviously'. as nothing is obvious at present. Ransomware..could be a robbery.

Is it the policy of state and local government to give in to ransomware? It's not like they're going to transfer bitcoin or Paypal to the attackers. I just don't think profit was the motive here.

 

[ABikerSailor]

Obviously the work of left-wing terrorists. They used to bomb those government facilities, now that just attack them through the internet.

I question the use of the word, "obviously'. as nothing is obvious at present. Ransomware..could be a robbery.

Is it the policy of state and local government to give in to ransomware? It's not like they're going to transfer bitcoin or Paypal to the attackers. I just don't think profit was the motive here.

Actually, in many cases it is, because the cost of paying the ransom demands is quite often a whole lot cheaper than them losing their data. They did a local news story on it a couple of weeks back here in Amarillo. Some of the mayors of smaller towns said it was cheaper to pay than redo the systems.

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

Obviously the work of left-wing terrorists. They used to bomb those government facilities, now that just attack them through the internet.

I question the use of the word, "obviously'. as nothing is obvious at present. Ransomware..could be a robbery.

Is it the policy of state and local government to give in to ransomware? It's not like they're going to transfer bitcoin or Paypal to the attackers. I just don't think profit was the motive here.

In truth..I dunno. Govt. policy..is kind of all about what is at stake, I suspect.If there is a high cost to rebooting everything..and the price is relatively small...maybe--just too soon is all I'm saying.

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

Obviously the work of left-wing terrorists. They used to bomb those government facilities, now that just attack them through the internet.

I question the use of the word, "obviously'. as nothing is obvious at present. Ransomware..could be a robbery.

Is it the policy of state and local government to give in to ransomware? It's not like they're going to transfer bitcoin or Paypal to the attackers. I just don't think profit was the motive here.

Actually, in many cases it is, because the cost of paying the ransom demands is quite often a whole lot cheaper than them losing their data. They did a local news story on it a couple of weeks back here in Amarillo. Some of the mayors of smaller towns said it was cheaper to pay than redo the systems.

They've hit a lot of hospitals..patient data.

 

[JGalt]

Obviously the work of left-wing terrorists. They used to bomb those government facilities, now that just attack them through the internet.

I question the use of the word, "obviously'. as nothing is obvious at present. Ransomware..could be a robbery.

Is it the policy of state and local government to give in to ransomware? It's not like they're going to transfer bitcoin or Paypal to the attackers. I just don't think profit was the motive here.

Actually, in many cases it is, because the cost of paying the ransom demands is quite often a whole lot cheaper than them losing their data. They did a local news story on it a couple of weeks back here in Amarillo. Some of the mayors of smaller towns said it was cheaper to pay than redo the systems.

But don't you think it's strange that in this time of Trump trying to get a handle on illegal border crossings, the attack was against the U.S. Customs and Border Protection?

Why not other Texas governmental agencies?

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

Obviously the work of left-wing terrorists. They used to bomb those government facilities, now that just attack them through the internet.

I question the use of the word, "obviously'. as nothing is obvious at present. Ransomware..could be a robbery.

Is it the policy of state and local government to give in to ransomware? It's not like they're going to transfer bitcoin or Paypal to the attackers. I just don't think profit was the motive here.

Actually, in many cases it is, because the cost of paying the ransom demands is quite often a whole lot cheaper than them losing their data. They did a local news story on it a couple of weeks back here in Amarillo. Some of the mayors of smaller towns said it was cheaper to pay than redo the systems.

But don't you think it's strange that in this time of Trump trying to get a handle on illegal border crossings, the attack was against the U.S. Customs and Border Protection?

Why not other Texas governmental agencies?

Ahh..you are conflating two separate events...the outage at customs has been termed, 'not malicious by the Border people...just a huge glitch.

The ransomware attacks are against 20 small city and county offices.

 

[Dekster]

Texans will shoot their own computers rather than let them be held hostage, damn it.

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

Texans will shoot their own computers rather than let them be held hostage, damn it.

One false move and the modem gets it!