Georgia’s Courts Hit by Ransomware

[upnorth]

Content source

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/07/ryuk-ryuk-ryuk-georgias-courts-hit-by-ransomware/

Georgia's Judicial Council and Administrative Office of the Courts is the victim of the latest ransomware attack against state and local agencies. And this looks like the same type of attack that took down the systems of at least two Florida municipal governments in June.

Administrative Office of the Courts spokesman Bruce Shaw confirmed the ransomware attack to Atlanta's Channel 11 News. The Administrative Office of the Courts' website is currently offline. Shaw told 11 News that some systems had not been affected by the ransomware but that all systems connected to the network had been taken offline to prevent the ransomware from spreading. The Courts' IT department was in contact with "external agencies" to coordinate a response to the attack, Shaw said. Ars attempted to reach Shaw for comment, but he was not available. And no details were shared about the ransomware or the demand from its operator. But some reports link the attack to the same Ryuk ransomware that hit at least two Florida local governments last month.

 

[Dcroft39]

Honestly..... State agencies, government, etc, should have a fund set up to pay this off. They are going to waste and spend more money trying to fight this, than if they just pay the ransom and get the key. Does it look bad? It's gonna look a helluva a lot worse when they have to go back to pen and paper and the judicial systems back up even further. Evidence gets lost, criminals go free. Yeh maybe it's a cop(no pun) out, playing there game. But todays hackers. And I've had a taste of some of the elite and I fear I am still in for the long fight, they aren't using techniques, hardware and software that they did 10 years ago. I've read about some agencies being hit, didn't pay and their specialists made if worse and had to spend 3 times , 5 times the random and take years to get it to working order. Idk. In sure @Slygy would love a chance to go for the jugguler of one of these nightmares. And he could probably fix it. But the agencies will do as they will. I wish them all the best and hope it works out for them

 

[upnorth]

Does it look bad? It's gonna look a helluva a lot worse when they have to go back to pen and paper

Norwegian company Hydro did exactly that, pen and paper and is now rebuilding. Smart and correct choice! Personal I rather have something working then nothing. Hydro is an example many US departments, agencies etc can learn and gain a lot from.

 

[alakazam]

Someone should tell them about ZoneAlarm's anti-ransomware tool.

 

[Moonhorse]

Someone should tell them about ZoneAlarm's anti-ransomware tool.

More like push upgrades to pcs with windows xp & keep software up to date

 

[Dcroft39]

I would t trust zonealarm. With my left... Well. I just got over a bad infection where ZA was at the heart. This is a new era. More often. Than not people with the means are realizing to fight is going to put others in jeopardy and let's just hope they give up the key. They don't, then you hire the biggest guns you can find and strap in for a rough ride.. side bar, I'm dealing with so etching might be new may not I'm seeing all these duplicate services with _ab5f17 type extensions in my services. I delete and they respawn with different names on boot. I wrote a program that wipes em out in about 112ms there's 20 of em but I gotta say what the actual #####? Has anyone heard tell of this at all. Sorry to hijack. The whole East coast there about went off the grid last night and it's got me a bit spooked.