Computer Virus Paralyze Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office

Wmtw.com reported on 10th April, 2015 stating that a computer virus recently compromised computer systems at the Sheriff's Office in Lincoln County (Maine, US) and the departments using the network.

Bangordailynews.com published news on 9th April, 2015 quoting Sheriff Todd Brackett as saying "The virus namely megacode seized data of the record management system captive until a ransom of three hundred euros in bitcoins is paid." Once the payment was made, the decryption code was released and record management system was activated.

Brackett said that an individual manually downloaded the virus by clicking on a link in a doubtful email.

He (Brackett) ruling out cyber attack noted that they weren't hacked because with this kind of virus, one has to unleash it manually.

He said that the unwanted virus was inactive on a system which was unused in one of the police departments of the area. He added that the tainted computer that had been out of use for over a year was put back into the network for use and the virus swelled to the central server.

The virus 'megacode' is a type of crypto-ransomware malware which encrypts system files until a ransom is paid.

This virus is known as ransomware which is being more frequently appearing resulting other law enforcement departments all over the country had to pay ransom money to get back files. The hackers mainly from Russia mostly demand the ransom amount in bitcoins which is an online currency having fluid value. The ransomware often warns that if the ransom amount is not paid within a stipulated time, then it will wipe the whole computer or system.

Sfgate.com published news on 11th April, 2015 quoting Brackett as saying "FBI helped to only track the payment made to Swiss bank account but could not identify the hackers."

Boothbayregister.com published a report on 10th April, 2015 quoting Brackett as saying "But there were more positives derived from the incident."

Now the department knows about such scams and how to deal with them and there will be further training to fight such scams.

» SPAMfighter News - 4/18/2015