Lake City agreed to pay $500,000 in ransom, is the second case in Florida in a week

A few days ago, Riviera Beach City agreed to pay $600,000 in ransom, now a Lake City, another city in Florida, agreed to do the same after a ransomware attack.

A few days ago, Riviera Beach City agreed to pay $600,000 in ransom, now less than a week later, another city in Florida opted to do the same to recover its data after a ransomware attack.

The victim is Lake City, Florida, that during an emergency meeting of the city council held on Monday, voted to pay a ransom demand of 42 bitcoins, worth nearly $500,000. Lake City is a small city in Florida with a population of 65,000 that was hit by ransomware earlier on June 10.

“On Monday June 10th, 2019, the City of Lake City was targeted by a malware attack known as ‘Triple Threat.'” states the press release published by the city. “This ransomware program combines three different methods of attack to target network systems. As a result of this attack, many City systems are currently out of order. City personnel are working diligently to establish alternate methods of providing city services.”

The systems were hit by so-called Triple-threat attack, a ransomware attack that involves three different malware. In the past Triple Threat attacks involved the QUERVAR ransomware, the SIREFEF, and ZACCESS. 

At the time of writing, all City of Lake City email systems are out of order, such as most land-line phones. Other City networks are currently disabled as precautionary measure and the IT staff as isolated the Public Safety networks.

In a few minutes after the initial infection, the ransomware compromised almost all the City computer systems, except the systems operated by the police and fire departments that are hosted on a separate network. Most City departments are operating using Emergency Operations cell phones.

The activities of the small city have been blocked for nearly two weeks because of the ransomware attack. Crooks made a request of a ransom a week after the initial infection, they contacted the Lake City’s insurance provider, the League of Cities, which negotiated a payment of 42 bitcoins.

The city’s IT staff is now working to restore operations after receiving the key to decrypt its data.

In July 2018, another Palm Beach suburb, Palm Springs, decided to pay a ransom, but it was not able to completely recover all its data.

In March 2019, computers of Jackson County, Georgia, were infected with ransomware that paralyzed the government activity until officials decided to pay a $400,000 ransom to decrypt the files.

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Lake City, ransomware)

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