Update 12\/7\/2017 – County officials have reported <\/a>they do not plan to pay the $23,000 ransom.\u00a0 Instead, they will use backup files to restore the encrypted data.\u00a0 It is unknown how long servers will remain offline to remediate the issues.<\/em><\/p>\n The Mecklenburg County offices, located in Charlotte, North Carolina have been hit with ransomware.\u00a0 LockCrypt, the ransomware variant that infiltrated the county’s systems infected 48 of the 500 servers.\u00a0 At this time, county offices remain open, but “are slow” according to The Charlotte Observer.<\/a>\u00a0 LockCrypt attacks the systems on December 5th, and completely paralyzed the systems.\u00a0 It took some time, but employees were able to continue working offline.<\/p>\n At this time, the data remains encrypted.\u00a0 County officials are working with third party agencies to determine if it would be best to attempt to restore the encrypted files themselves, or pay the $23,000 ransom.\u00a0 The original deadline to pay the ransom was December 6th by 1 p.m.\u00a0 The deadline has since passed, and the county has yet to pay the ransom.\u00a0 It is believed a decision will be made by the end of today.\u00a0 For now, systems remain offline.<\/p>\n To see a full list of ransomware attacks that have taken place this year, you can click here<\/a>. We have also created a ransomware map, see below, of the ransomware attacks that have taken place in the U.S.Other Ransomware Attacks<\/h4>\n
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