Per latest reports, all around the globe, only last year we
faced a hike in losses that occur due to malicious activities or cyber-crime.
Only earlier this year, cities Baltimore and Maryland of
U.S. were attacked by a ransomware where computer networks got locked up and
made making transactions impossible.
The administrators denied the demands for a ransom of
$76,000 in exchange for unlocking systems but now have been encumbered with an
estimate of $18 million to rebuild and/or restore the city’s’ computer
networks.
Usually when hit by ransomware or any other malicious agent
there are some pretty hard-hitting choices that the victim organizations have
to face.
Two Florida cities had to pay a sum total of $1 million as
ransom this year after which the same malicious group attacked the state court
of Georgia.
The above data of losses generating from ransomware attacks
rising by 60% was cited by the Internet Society’s Online Trust Alliance.
Since 2013, around 170 county, city and state government
networks have been victims with 22 incidents being only this year.
The cities are not prepared against cyber-crime and hence are
being repeatedly attacked as mentioned by a researcher at Stanford.
To pay or not to pay? This is a raging question when it
comes to ransoms. FBI warns against it but researchers say that there is no
clear side that could be chosen by victims who have their important data locked.
It hence becomes obvious that what needs to be done is what
happens to be the best for the organization which means considering paying
ransom in some cases.
To or not to pay is secondary where primary issue still
happens to be with the software updates and lack of backups and security
measures the users take.
