US Police Forced to Pay Bitcoin Ransom

It’s strange to think that the police force could become a victim of hackers. The strict network security implementation would make you think that they’re safe from any hacking scheme. Clearly not.

Maine police departments have recently encountered hackers within their network. The police officials were baffled by the hackers who managed to break into the system and as a result had to resort to paying the ransom in Bitcoin.

The Associated press have stated that the network at the County Sheriff’s office was infiltrated by a type of virus called ransomware. This meant that the hackers blocked the police from getting access to their data until they paid the ransom off.

“It is normal practice for the county’s offices to be connected via an intranet facility. This procedure had been implemented to enhance connection between the four towns and their police departments; however, the hacking episode proved more of a cost to the police department. The hackers were able to enter the system and corrupt the data of all four towns”  Said technewstoday.

Turns out that the hackers only requested that £200 worth of Bitcoins were sent to them, seems a rather small fee but the Maine police force will have now learned that network security is something not to be breached. Once the hackers received the payment they sent the officials the key to access the data again.

When asked about the hack by Technewstoday; Damariscotta Police Chief, Ron Young said “”we needed our programs to get back online.” 

Usually, you would just revert to the latest backup of the servers used, however as luck had it the forces backup server hadn’t worked properly so the cops had no choice but to pay out the cash.

Thanks to TheRegister and technewstoday for this information

Image courtesy of anonhq