Agent Timothy Benitez from the United States secret services and officials from the Stafford County have released a joint statement yesterday saying that the ransomware attack launched on its digital assets in June this year was launched from overseas.
Getting into the details, county workers realized that the dispatch center was hit by a cyber attack on June 28 at 5:30 am disrupting the services from then on. As it was a file-encrypting malware attack the infection is said to have spread to other servers within no time affecting over 500 computers.
No personal records at the Jail or at the nursing services were affected by the attack and Sheriff David Dubois said that the infiltration was not done to steal any info of employees.
Later a criminal investigation launched by the law enforcement discovered that the attack was launched from servers operating in overseas. That means it could be an act of state-funded actors from Asia or the Middle East.
As all the data from systems were backed up for disaster recovery, the authorities are not willing to bow down to the demands of the hackers.
Sen Maggie Hassan, a member of Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said that issues such as these were concerning. However, she confirmed that the government was well capable to thwart such risks with ease.
Details such as who was involved in the incident and the demanded ransom were kept under wraps for reasons.
Note- Stafford County is a region located in the Commonwealth of Virginia which is a suburb outside to Washington DC.
