Cybercriminals hold US city hostage by hacking around 10,000 computers

Cybercrime has taken a new turn for US city of Baltimore when anonymous hackers took control of thousands of computers, asking for thousands of dollars of Bitcoin in return.

The cybercriminals used ransomware known as RohinHood to seize control of about 10,000 city’s computers, saying that they won’t surrender unless Baltimore agrees to pay about $100,000 worth of Bitcoin cryptocurrency.

However, as per Futurism, though the city is not equipped to crack the ransomware, it has also not agreed to meet the ransom demand, meaning it has been forced to go largely offline. The attack took place two weeks ago, while officials believe it can take months more to totally resolve it.

Officials have lost access to email, resulting in manual workarounds for operations that would require computer networks otherwise. They are also unable to process utility bills, parking fines, or perform other basic administrative tasks, as per Independent.

As per Baltimore Sun, RobinHood ransomware used in this attack encrypts files with a ‘file-locking’ virus so that the hackers can hold the files hostage.

In this regard, Baltimore Mayor Bernard Young mentioned that completely recovering from the attack might take a while. “Our focus is getting critical services back online, and doing so in a manner that ensures we keep security as one of our top priorities throughout this process.”

“You may see partial services beginning to restore within a matter of weeks, while some of our more intricate systems may take months in the recovery process,” he continued.