Twenty local government entities across Texas have been hit by a coordinated ransomware attack, the state’s Department of Information Resources (DIR) announced on Friday.
“Currently, DIR, the Texas Military Department, and the Texas A&M University System’s Cyberresponse and Security Operations Center teams are deploying resources to the most critically impacted jurisdictions,” the department, which is leading the state’s response, said in a press release. “Further resources will be deployed as they are requested.”
Ransomware attacks have been gaining currency among hackers in recent years as a preferred method of extortion, especially among municipal entities. Digital intruders will plant malicious code inside the networks of an agency’s information systems—often exploiting the relatively unsophisticated or out-of-date cyber defenses of ill-prepared cities—and shut down access to computers or specific databases.
Users are then extorted for cash in order to regain access to their systems, and they are nearly always asked to pay in Bitcoin, a blockchain currency that is virtually untraceable, allowing hackers to pull off these complex operations from a single room halfway around…
