Another week and another government institutions computer network is hit by a ransomware attack. This time it was the servers of the Pennsylvania Democrats that was hit and a message given to them asking for payment to receive an encryption key to unencrypt the data.
A statement by Democrat Jay Costa said:
Officials from the caucus have been in contact with law enforcement to investigate the incident and are working with Microsoft to restore the IT system. There is currently no indication that the caucus system was targeted or that any data has been compromised.
No details of how the system was compromised has yet been released but it is known that the I.T network affected deals with the data storage, website hosting and email services for all 16 Democratic state senators and their staff. As of Saturday evening the websites where all still unavailable.
The FBI have confirmed that they are investigating the incident but have not given any details on how much the hackers are demanding to provide the keys to unlock the computers or whether the Caucus office are considering paying.