A recent ransomware attack which took place on 23 local government entities of Texas is believed to cost the entire state at least $12 million loss which could surge if the incident gets unwrapped further during investigations.
The attack is said to have started in the early hours of Friday and reportedly took place on over 23 un-named locations which are supposed to be small government bodies.
Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) has informed the law enforcement about the incident and has started a probe on who could be behind the ‘well-coordinated cyber-attack’.
Furthermore, the department is urging local authorities to contact their local TDEM Disaster District Coordinator to report the impact losses.
According to update available to our Cybersecurity Insiders, the estimated costs incurred for the Texas 2019 ransomware attack could be split as follows-
Texas County/s- $3,250,000
Texas City utility/s- $2,340,000
Education- $1,800,000
Misc- $5,000,000
Greg Abbott, the Texas governor has ordered a ‘Level 2 Escalated Response’ over the incident on Friday and sorted a report on it on Sunday evening.
In Dec’18, FBI has already issued a cyber alert saying the victims of a ransomware attack should never pay the hackers as it not only encourages crime to propagate further. But also doesn’t guarantee the clean up of the database from the malware.
Note- A ransomware is a file-encrypting malware which locks down access to files until a demanded ransom is paid to hackers. Usually, the payment is solicited in Bitcoins or Monero as these two happen to be discrete digital currencies.
