Riviera Beach, Fla., pays $600,000 ransom payment

By Doug Olenick for SC Media
Thursday, June 20, 2019

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Riviera Beach is not the first municipality or business to make this decision. Jackson County, Ga. caved to the demand paying its attacker $400,000 in March 2019 as did Columbia Surgical Specialists of Spokane, Wash., which paid $15,000 ransom.

Ilia Kolochenko, founder and CEO of ImmuniWeb, pointed out that not only might the criminals not keep their end of the bargain, but also encourages others to launch ransomware attacks.

“This is very alarming news that will likely spur an unprecedented spike of ransomware attacks on the critical infrastructure of small cities that are inapt to duly protect themselves,” he said.

Riviera Beach is not alone in being targeted as it joins Baltimore and Atlanta and at least 20 other municipalities around the country. Baltimore and Atlanta refused to pay resulting in recovery costs of $18 million and $17 million, respectively. Read Full Article