Washington (AFP)
A Florida city has authorized a ransom of nearly $ 600,000 in bitcoins to hackers who paralyzed its computer networks.
The Riviera Beach City Council, a city of 32,500 inhabitants north of Miami, voted this week for its insurer to pay 65 bitcoins to pirates, or $ 592,000, reports the Palm Beach Post.
According to the newspaper, the attack began on May 29, when a municipal police officer opened a phishing email that contained malicious software.
This has spread throughout the city's computer, crippling mail boxes and phone lines. For three weeks, municipal employees had to reconnect with forgotten practices: wages were paid by check and fines were handwritten.
Potentially more serious, the malware disrupted the 911 emergency call stations and water treatment plants.
In a message posted on its website on June 5, the municipality had evoked a "computer security incident" and assured that "internal teams and external consultants were trying to solve the problem".
The day before, she had released a million dollars to buy about 400 new computers and other equipment.
E-mails, financial services and water stations were gradually restored, but some data remained inaccessible Monday. The city council hopes that the payment of the ransom will make it possible to recover them, but without certainty.
More than 50 US cities have been targeted by similar attacks over the past two years, including the city of Baltimore, Maryland, which has refused to pay a ransom. Hospitals, an airport and a port were also targeted.
? 2019 AFP