LaPorte County in the U.S. state of Indiana has reportedly paid cybercriminals over $130,000 after they infected its systems with a piece of ransomware. The mayors of two major cities in LaPorte recently pledged not to give in to ransomware demands.
Local CBS and NBC affiliates reported that officials decided to pay the 10.5 bitcoin ransom after the FBI failed to recover the data encrypted by the ransomware. LaPorte county’s insurance will reportedly cover $100,000 of the $130,000.
The ransomware involved in the attack is said to be Ryuk, which, according to some reports, was also involved in the recent attack on Jackson County in Georgia. Jackson paid cybercriminals $400,000 after its systems became infected with file-encrypting malware.
The Michigan City News Dispatch reported that the attack on LaPorte occurred on July 6 and it was confined by the county’s IT department to less than 7 percent of the organization’s laptops, but the ransomware did hit two domain controllers, preventing servers from accessing network services.
The United States Conference of Mayors recently said its over 1,400 members had promised not to give in to ransomware demands. It’s worth noting that two of the biggest cities in LaPorte County, La Porte and Michigan, are both members of the organization.
The list of U.S. cities that have paid up in response to ransomware attacks are West Haven in Connecticut ($2,000 paid), Riviera Beach in Florida ($600,000 paid), and Lake City in Florida ($460,000 paid). However, it has been reported that Lake City still has not managed to recover all of its files, despite paying the ransom.
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