23 cities in Texas hit by largest-ever coordinated cyber attack

On August 16, computer systems in 23 cities in Texas were hacked in a widespread, coordinated cyberattack that was likely the largest in history.

Фото: Depositphotos

An attacker stores data in the city’s computer systems for ransom. The attack was launched by “one protagonist,” representatives of the Texas Information Department said. Business Insider.

An alternative to paying a ransom would be to restore data for each city from data backups, but it is not known whether such copies have ever been created. It is also unclear whether sufficient security measures were taken in cities to mitigate the potential damage from such attacks.

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In an interview with The New York Times, Allan Liska, an analyst with the cybersecurity company Recorded Future, said the ransomware attack in Texas was the largest to date, and perhaps the first time he encountered a coordinated attack of this kind.

The Texas Information Department revealed little information about the attacks. It is not known which cities or departments were affected, whether any city services were affected, or how demanding the attackers were.

Networks belonging to the Texas state government were not affected, the department said, declining to comment further.

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In May in Baltimore, 10 000 computers were subjected to a similar ransomware attack when an attacker demanded that they pay 100 000 dollars in bitcoins for returning data.

In June, two cities in Florida were also hit by ransomware. Lake City and Riviera Beach paid attackers more than 1 million dollars to return data stored in urban systems. Lake City paid 500 000 dollars in bitcoins. Riviera Beach paid 600 000 dollars.

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