A ransomware attack forced the shutdown of all the computer operations of the city of Greenville, South Carolina, According to the cyber forensics course experts from the International Institute of Cyber Security, the attack forced the authorities to shut down most of their servers.
Greenville officials, together with professionals from the rest of the U.S., began a joint effort to stop the infection, as well as to determine who the possible perpetrators of the attack are.
“This is a ransomware attack, we forced a shutdown” said a city spokesman. “The perpetrators of the attack demanded a ransom, but that’s all I can say for the moment,” concluded the official, not without first adding that the government’s IT teams are doing everything they can to rehabilitate all the affected services as soon as possible.
According to the cyber forensics course experts, the police communication systems and emergency services work on a regular basis, as they are on separate servers from the rest.
Reports say the infection was initially detected by a member of the Greenville Police Department, who contacted the city government’s technology area. Subsequently, officials decided to close the system to begin the recovery process.
The Greenville Government’s operations are being carried out on a regular basis, except for some exceptions; “the functions of the Greenville government are carried out by people, not just by machines,” declared a city official.
Ransomware attack variants of this type have been detected recently in various parts of the world. A couple of weeks ago, the Norsk Hydro company was hit by a ransomware attack that forced the suspension of some systems from the aluminum manufacturing company.
Ransomware is one of the most recently grown cyber threats, said cyber forensic course experts; this malware variant encrypts the victim’s files and then demands a cryptocurrency payment in exchange for unlocking infected files.
He is a well-known expert in mobile security and malware analysis. He studied Computer Science at NYU and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2003. He is actively working as an anti-malware expert. He also worked for security companies like Kaspersky Lab. His everyday job includes researching about new malware and cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in mobile security and mobile vulnerabilities.
