City of Joplin paid a 320K ransom after a ransomware Attack

A ransomware attack hit City of Joplin forcing the IT staff to shutdown the City computer. Finally the insurer for Joplin paid $320,000 to threat actors.

A ransomware attack last month hit the City of Joplin forcing the IT staff to shut down the city’s government’s computer system to prevent the threat from spreading. While investigation into the security breach is still ongoing, the insurer for the City opted to pay a $320,00 ransom to avoid that the leak of the stolen info, Joplin City Manager Nick Edwards confirmed this week.

“Computer servers and programs that operated the city’s online services were closed down on July 7. Joplin’s internet-based telephone system was restored two days later.” states the Associated Press. “Cybersecurity firms hired to recover the city’s information technology systems have restored nearly every system needed to resume normal operations, including the city’s COVID-19 dashboard, online utility payments and court functions, Edwards said.”

At the time of this writing, forensic experts are working to discover how threat actors breached the City network and infected internal systems.

Representatives from the City of Joplin will not disclose any further details about the attack to prevent future attacks.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Joplin)

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