Ransomware: Digital Extortion

In just the first quarter of this year ransomware attacks extorted more than $200 million from victims, including individuals, businesses, hospitals, government offices, and law enforcement.
In just the first quarter of this year ransomware attacks extorted more than $200 million from victims, including individuals, businesses, hospitals, government offices, and law enforcement.
But if this happens to your agency, don't expect the ransom to be $350. So-called ransomware attacks have surged so sharply that the FBI says hacking victims in the United States have paid more than $209 million in ransom payments in the first three months of this year, compared with $25 million in all of 2015. The FBI has not reported any arrests.
Now you can ask an expert your questions about security policy and the cloud and read responses to others' questions on PoliceMag.com.
The FBI and multiple police departments in Minnesota are investigating the release of a so-called "kill list" containing the names and personal information of at least 32 police officers from departments throughout the state.
Police in California and other states have complained for many months that data encryption creates a major investigative hurdle in the hunt for killers, human traffickers, child pornographers and other offenders. Some fear criminals are intentionally using devices that run on newer operating systems because they know police can’t access them, despite having search warrants signed by judges
Cybersecurity is a key topic that will be highlighted at International Wireless Communication Expo (IWCE), the premier annual event for communications technology professionals, scheduled to take place March 21–25, 2016 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The government's leisurely reaction to these cyber incidents continues to put the personal information of federal employees in jeopardy, particularly those with high-level security access.
A hacker on Monday published information that exposes the names, titles, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses for thousands of FBI employees, after leaking similar data about 9,000 Department of Homeland Security employees Sunday.
IT teams at law enforcement agencies across the United States have been dealing with an unusual challenge. White collar criminals, mostly based in foreign countries, have begun targeting police departments with “ransomware”—software that infects a computer and overwrites data, making a system inaccessible unless the user pays a ransom via Bitcoin.
A man has been ordered to spend a year and a half in federal prison for a cyberattack that disabled a St. Louis-area police union's website during unrest related to the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown.
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