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Typewriters emerge as the ultimate saviours, as computers get hacked in Alaska.


The severe attack incapacitates computers in the state. Not leaving behind emails, telephones and servers either.




After the immense cyber-attack by the ransomware undermined the complete set-up of the computers the employees of the borough in Alaska had to get back to the old style of using typewriters and handwritten material. The borough had to forcefully shut down a lot of its systems. It was in the middle of July, according to the borough, when the hackers took hold of the desktops, most of the servers, email exchange and the telephone systems.

Matanuska-Susitna(Mat-Su), a south-central borough in the Anchorage Metropolitan Statistical Area is the said organization where the hackers had wreaked havoc. The tech-criminals executed a so-called ‘ransomware’ attack by disposing of malicious software and taking charge over the digital systems. A pay-off was insisted upon as ransom from the targets in exchange for their data.

The staff members acted inventively in the absence of technological resources and took to the ‘dusty’ typewriters and handwritten receipts at the same time as the borough was being brought back to life, online, by officials. Patty Sullivan, Public Affairs Director at Mat-Su said that library book patrons and landfill fees were written by hand, at few of the 73 buildings in the borough.

The critical cyber-attack led to a crucial interruption in the productivity and services of the concerned area. ‘The attack has caused major disruption in the borough which may continue for a prolonged time’, a source said.

Trojan Horse (Emotet), Dead Man’s Switch, Time Bomb, Worm, Crypto Locker (Ransomware {BitPaymer}) and External Hacker are some of the tools of the multidimensional attack that had enfeebled the equipment of the aforementioned organization. The malicious programs mentioned before are the ‘worst of their types’, quoted the experienced international cyber specialists. The virus that infected the borough, already, has 209 preys to its name.

The attack was the ‘Zero-day’ type, in which the anti-virus software couldn’t detect or eliminate the hazard. The Tojan Horse had gotten into the system via emails.

Once inside the network, after acquiring access to the directory of the administrator, the domain controller shuts all the security, furthermore, cracking all the passwords and ultimately aiding the virus to find its way into other workstations and servers.

The attack had had a massive toll on the e-commerce.

According to sources, the group that inflicted this attack is a pretty structured one and is using quite a complex set of tools to create chaos within the country. The encrypted data was handed over to the FBI for the agents to decrypt it for the further retrieval of the data. 
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