{"id":58833,"date":"2018-03-06T14:11:46","date_gmt":"2018-03-06T20:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?p=58833"},"modified":"2018-03-06T14:16:53","modified_gmt":"2018-03-06T20:16:53","slug":"ransomware-takes-alabama-city-computers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/ransomware-takes-alabama-city-computers\/","title":{"rendered":"Ransomware Takes Down Alabama City Computers"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Alabama City Falls Victim<\/h3>\n<p>An unknown ransomware variant attacked an Alabama city, taking their operations offline.\u00a0 The City of Leeds systems were riddled with ransomware over a week ago.\u00a0 Computers within the fire and police departments were impacted.\u00a0 Although, officials stated emergency response was not impacted.<\/p>\n<p>The city was demanded to make a payment of $12,000.\u00a0 After negotiating, the city agreed to pay the hackers $8,000 to unlock the files.\u00a0 According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wbrc.com\/story\/37635768\/city-of-leeds-falls-victim-to-ransomware-attack\">WBRC News 6<\/a>, the payment will come from insurance funds.<\/p>\n<p>PC Matic never encourages victims to pay the ransom, for the following reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There is no guarantee you&#8217;ll get your files back<\/li>\n<li>You&#8217;re likely to become another target<\/li>\n<li>If you pay once, you&#8217;ll likely pay again<\/li>\n<li>Payments encourage the hackers to keep attacking people<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Other Ransomware Attacks<\/h4>\n<p>For a list of ransomware attacks that have already taken place in 2018, you may click <a href=\"https:\/\/techtalk.pcpitstop.com\/2018\/01\/23\/ransomware-attacks-of-2018\/\">here<\/a>. We have also created a map, see below, of the ransomware attacks that have taken place in the U.S.<br \/>\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/embed?mid=1UE6Nko9iRG1tLci_AeqqsxzxGzs\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alabama City Falls Victim An unknown ransomware variant attacked an Alabama city, taking their operations offline.\u00a0 The City of Leeds systems were riddled with ransomware over a week ago.\u00a0 Computers within the fire and police departments were impacted.\u00a0 Although, officials stated emergency response was not impacted. The city was demanded to make a payment of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":55436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4949,4944,5000],"tags":[4363,5112],"class_list":["post-58833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ransomware","category-ransomware-reports","category-ransomwarewar","tag-ransomware","tag-ransomware-attacks"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ransomware Takes Down Alabama City Computers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ransomware attacked an Alabama city in late February, taking their operations offline. 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