Hackers Shut Down Boston Legal System for Weeks, Seeking Payment in Bitcoin
A cyberattack on the agency overseeing Boston public defenders has caused a weekslong slowdown, disabling e-mail systems, delaying some hearings, and hanging up payments for the private attorneys who represent clients, reports The Boston Globe.
“The Committee for Public Counsel Services has been cleaning up for two weeks after a ransomware attack locked up its servers, with the culprits demanding that a ransom be paid in bitcoin,” writes the Globe‘s Andy Rosen. “The agency refused to pay, because it has backup files it can use to restore the system.”
A similar attack hit the Jackson County, Georgia, government internal network recently, forcing most of the systems offline, according to ZDNet. In that case, the county paid $400,000 to cyber-criminals week to get rid of the ransomware infection and regain access to its IT systems.
