Malware attack disables government computer systems in LaPorte, Indiana

guest · Jul 8, 2019

Malware attack disables government computer systems in LaPorte
July 7, 2019
https://www.abc57.com/news/malware-attack-disables-government-computer-systems-in-laporte

According to LaPorte County Commission President Dr. Vidya Kora, county employees will not have access to any government email or website for at least a couple days.
Authorities say that the county experienced a malware attack that occurred on Saturday morning, disabling computer and email systems.

In press a release on Sunday, Dr. Kora made the following statement:

“Fortunately, our county liability agent of record John Jones last year recommended a cybersecurity insurance policy [...] Pennsylvania incident-response law firm of Mullen Coughlin LLC that specializes in responses to such cyber-attacks and coordinates system repairs and protection of our computers from further such virus infections.”

"[...] Unfortunately, at least half our servers have been infected and it will take some time to fully restore service. I ask for patience from members of the public as we seek to become fully operational again.”
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Minimalist · Jul 14, 2019

Indiana county pays ransom worth more than $130,000 after virus seizes computers: Reports

LaPorte County in Indiana was on the receiving end of a ransomware infection that resulted in officials agreeing to pay more than $130,000, local outlets reported Friday.

County officials agreed to pay the ransom in Bitcoin after determining the FBI was unable to unlock data that had been encrypted by the virus, the local NBC and CBS affiliates reported.

The county’s insurance plan is expected to cover $100,000 of the ransom, according to the outlets.
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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jul/13/indiana-county-pays-ransom-worth-more-than-130000-/

guest · Jul 14, 2019

Noobs, if they invested in proper security solutions, decent ITs and trained the employees , it wouldn't happened...guess better pay a ransom, cost less...

guest · Jul 19, 2019

Indiana county just paid hackers over $100k in ransom – and they’re not alone
July 18, 2019
https://fox59.com/2019/07/18/an-ind...ers-over-100k-in-ransom-and-theyre-not-alone/

In a written statement, the president of the county’s Board of Commissioners said, "This particular virus, Ryuk, that was used by the bad actors in this attack was particularly insidious in that it jumped over all our firewalls and was able to penetrate backup servers."

“Cyber-criminals are becoming far more sophisticated, and they know municipalities—local, federal and state governments—have antiquated software and it controls around cyber security protection," Guccione said.
“Unfortunately, in a day and age where cyber-crime has become so lucrative and many private and governmental entities across the country are being 'extorted' for their data, an ounce of additional prevention will be worth a pound of cure," the board president said.

Laporte is now part of a long line of recent victims in which cyber attacks have paralyzed an airport in Cleveland, city governments in Baltimore and Atlanta, the Department of Transportation in Colorado, the Port of San Diego and dozens of hospitals around the country.
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guest · Aug 26, 2019

similar breach:
Indiana County Suffers Service-Crippling Ransomware Attack
August 26, 2019
https://www.govtech.com/security/Indiana-County-Suffers-Service-Crippling-Ransomware-Attack.html

Lake County has been hit with a cyberattack that forced the shutdown of email service and several internal applications throughout county government, officials said Friday.

As of Thursday afternoon, the county's IT staff was installing cybersecurity software on 3,000 individual employee laptops, Mark Pearman, director of county's information technology office, said. They are also working through installing cybersecurity to clear the ransomware on 40 county servers.

"We are making progress," Pearman said. "We are going slow because we don't want to miss anything that could cause problems in the future or re-infect the system."
As of Friday afternoon Pearman said no dollar amount had been requested and the county has not answered the cyberattackers' request for communication.

At this time, Crowdstrike is still investigating the source of the attack. He said because the FBI was involved in the LaPorte cyberattack, it is likely they will also be involved in this investigation down the road. Any leading information Crowdstrike finds will be passed to law enforcement agencies.
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