No Ransom Paid in Recent Attack, Texas Says

The Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) says it is not aware of any ransom being paid to recover systems affected by a recent ransomware attack.

The incident took place on August 16, when more than 20 Texas local governments reported being infected as part of a coordinated assault. A total of 22 towns were identified as impacted by the attack.

The State Operations Center (SOC) was activated later that morning and, by August 23, all affected entities were already recovering, with business-critical services restored, DIR says.

“By day four, response teams had visited all impacted sites and state response work had been completed at more than 25% of those sites. One week after the attack began, all sites were cleared for remediation and recovery,” DIR said in a statement published on Thursday.

To date, more than half of the impacted cities are back to operations as usual, DIR reveals.

Previous reports suggested that the attackers might have asked for $2.5 million in exchange for the decryption keys that would provide access to the encrypted data, but DIR says no money has been paid to restore impacted systems.

“DIR is unaware of any ransom being paid in this event,” the statement reads.

The Department said previously that all evidence suggested that a single actor might have orchestrated the attack, but no additional information on the attacker or the malware used has been provided.

“Information security is everyone’s responsibility. From IT providers to end users, we all must remain vigilant and practice good cyber hygiene practices,” Nancy Rainosek, the CISO of the state of Texas, commented.

The incident is only one of the many reported over the past few years. LaPorte County (Indiana), Jackson County (Georgia), Riviera Beach (Florida), Lake City (Florida), Atlanta, and Baltimore were previously hit by ransomware, and New Bedford is the latest victim of this type of malware.

Related: Ransomware Attack Locks Out New Bedford City Data

Related: U.S. Mayors Pledge Not to Give in to Ransomware Demands