City of Torrance, based in the metropolitan area of California was reported to have been hit by a ransomware attack launched by DopplePaymer gang on March 1st,2020. And reports are now in that since the authorities failed to pay the demanded ransom of 100 Bitcoins($698,000) the hackers have revealed around 200 GB of data online in retaliation.
Readers of Cybersecurity Insiders have to notify a fact over here that almost 50 days ago, the DopplePaymer Ransomware gangs managed to infiltrate the computer network of the City of Torrance and managed to wipe off the local backups along with the activity of encrypting over 150 servers and 500 workstations.
At that time the city’s IT staff confirmed that no data related to 145,000 residents were compromised in the attack.
However, a new post published on Doppel leaks has some sample files related to the city’s financial budget, accounting stats, and some information related to the City Manager of Torrance. On deep inquiry, the files are reported to contain sensitive info such as names, date of births, social security numbers, and financial transactions which occurred in the financial year 2018-2019.
Note 1- According to an FBI report released in March 2020, ransomware victims paid $144 million in BTC to hackers between Oct’13 to Nov’19. But as most of the attacks went unreported, the said number might just be an underestimate.
Note 2- Cybersecurity firm Emsisoft says that the ransomware attacks might increase in Q1 2020 as most of the Corporate workforce are working from home due to COVID 19 virus spread.
