Garfield County, Utah became the latest municipality to not only be hit with a ransomware attack, but succumb to the attackers demand and pay the ransom.
Local news reports said the attack happened several weeks ago, but proved so severe that the county opted to pay for the release of its files. The payment was made in bitcoin and the files were released in March. The county did not state how much was paid to the attackers. In March Jackson County, Georgia paid a $400,000 when it found itself in a similar situation.
"All of our data had been taken," Garfield County Attorney Barry Huntington told Fox13Now.
The attack was launched via a phishing email resulting in the county’s data being encrypted, although some officials told Fox13now that the data from the assessor's office and the recorder's office had also been removed.
