Around 30 servers at Mecklenburg County, North Carolina were held hostage by hackers spreading Ransomware on Tuesday evening, forcing the authorities to go back to old school paper processes. Sources reporting to Cybersecurity Insiders say that the hackers are demanding $23,000 worth of bitcoins to provide re-access to the files and the payment have to be made within 3 PM on Wednesday.
The most affected service in Mecklenburg County Ransomware Cyber Attack is the county’s Department of Social Services Transportation Scheduling System.
It is said that the attack happened on the computer network when one of the county employees clicked on an email attachment that was infected with malware. The county says that no personal data such as social security numbers or health information were compromised in the incident. But some servers could have spilled credit card information in encrypted form to the hackers in this process.
Danny Diehl, a spokesperson for the county services said that employees are trying their best to handle tasks manually and hope the issue gets resolved within 24 hours.
Meanwhile, Mecklenburg County Manager Dena Diorio said that all the senior staff is busy debating whether to pay the ransom or to go for a disaster recovery plan with the help of data continuity services such as backups and recovery.
However, Dena added in the statement that recovery of data will take more than a week and could cost over $2 million. So, officials are working with a data consultant to go with the best possible solution.
More details are awaited!
Note- Mecklenburg County is a region located on the borders of North Carolina State. Its capital city is Charlotte and covers a total area of 546 square miles.
