A Massachusetts mayor says hackers demanded $5.3 million from his city in a ransomware attack this summer.
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell disclosed Wednesday that a variant of the Ryuk virus blocked access to information on 158 city computers in July. The Standard-Times reports the city had previously blamed an unspecified virus.
The attacker demanded a Bitcoin payment equal to $5.3 million.
Mitchell says the city wasn’t interested in negotiating at first, but eventually offered $400,000 from insurance proceeds.
The hacker rejected the offer and made no counter demand. The city then decided to recover the data on its own.
The city is not aware of any theft of residents’ personal data, but Mitchell says they cannot rule it out since several servers were encrypted and could not be examined.
Related: Indiana County Pays $130,000 in Response to Ransomware Attack
Related: As Ransomware Rages, Debate Heats Up on Response
Related: U.S. Mayors Pledge Not to Give in to Ransomware Demands
Related: Georgia County Criticized Over $400K Ransomware Payment

More from Associated Press
- Democrats and Republicans Are Skeptical of US Spying Practices, an AP-NORC Poll Finds
- BBC, British Airways, Novia Scotia Among First Big-Name Victims in Global Supply-Chain Hack
- Microsoft Will Pay $20M to Settle US Charges of Illegally Collecting Children’s Data
- Insider Q&A: Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity In Military Tech
- Idaho Hospitals Working to Resume Full Operations After Cyberattack
- Major Massachusetts Health Insurer Hit by Ransomware Attack, Member Data May Be Compromised
- Biden Picks New NSA Head, Key to Support of Ukraine, Defense of US Elections
- White House Unveils New Efforts to Guide Federal Research of AI
Latest News
- In Other News: AI Regulation, Layoffs, US Aerospace Attacks, Post-Quantum Encryption
- Blackpoint Raises $190 Million to Help MSPs Combat Cyber Threats
- Google Introduces SAIF, a Framework for Secure AI Development and Use
- ‘Asylum Ambuscade’ Group Hit Thousands in Cybercrime, Espionage Campaigns
- Evidence Suggests Ransomware Group Knew About MOVEit Zero-Day Since 2021
- SaaS Ransomware Attack Hit Sharepoint Online Without Using a Compromised Endpoint
- Google Cloud Now Offering $1 Million Cryptomining Protection
- Democrats and Republicans Are Skeptical of US Spying Practices, an AP-NORC Poll Finds
