Garfield County, Utah became the latest municipality to not
only be hit with a ransomware attack, but succumb to the attackers demand and
pay the ransom.Local news reports said the attack happened several weeks
ago, but proved so severe that the county opted to pay for the release of its
files. The payment was made in bitcoin and the files were released in March.
The county did not state how much was paid to the attackers. In March Jackson
County, Georgia paid a $400,000 when it found itself in a similar
situation."All of our data had been taken," Garfield County
Attorney Barry Huntington told Fox13Now.The attack was launched via a phishing email resulting in
the county’s data being encrypted, although some officials told Fox13now that
the data from the assessor's office and the recorder's office had also been
removed.
