- The Washington Times - Thursday, June 11, 2020

A northern Alabama city plans to pay a ransom to cybercriminals that took the city’s computer system hostage.

Florence’s city council voted unanimously Wednesday evening to pay $300,000 in Bitcoin to the attackers, with the funding reportedly coming from the city’s insurance fund.

Cybercrime is on the rise amid the coronavirus outbreak forcing more people to do business online. The FBI said in April that complaints of cybercrime tripled since the start of the outbreak, and cyberattacks have since gotten worse.

A ransomware attack hit the Texas judicial system last month, forcing the state courts to set up temporary websites, and automaker Honda experienced a cyberattack this week that hampered its U.S. production capabilities.

Despite the aggressive posture of cybercriminals, the Alabama town may not have acted swiftly enough to avoid its present problem. Florence Mayor Steve Holt told the Associated Press the attackers might have been inside the city’s system since early May and acknowledged that the city was contacted in May about its network being potentially compromised.

Cybersecurity writer Brian Krebs wrote on his website earlier this week that he contacted numerous city officials in Florence in late May after being tipped off to a potential intrusion in the Alabama town, but he had difficulty finding anyone that had great interest in acting on his information.

• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.

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