Ohio Police and Fire Departments Suffer Two Ransomware Attacks Within a Month

Ransomware Takes Out Ohio Police and Fire Departments, Again…

Riverside Fire and Police Departments, located in Ohio, have been the target of recent ransomware attacks.  In mid-April, an undisclosed ransomware took down the public municipality’s networks.  Officials reported, they did not pay the ransom demands, instead choosing to work with their IT staff to rebuild their systems.  The attack left 10 months worth of files inaccessible.

Unfortunately, less than four weeks later, another ransomware attack infiltrated their networks.  This time, creating far less havoc than the first infection.  This attack only, if you can say “only”, impacted eight hours worth of data.  Riverside Fire and Police officials reported everything else had been backed up, with the exception of the eight hours worth of information that will have to be reentered.  Once again, the ransomware variant is not being disclosed, and officials do not plan to pay the ransom demands.

It appears the municipality has learned the importance of timely backups to help remediate, post-ransomware infections.  However, now it is time to find a solution that prevents the attacks all together.

Other Ransomware Attacks

For a list of ransomware attacks that have already taken place in 2018, you may click here. We have also created a map, see below, of the ransomware attacks that have taken place in the U.S.

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