Nebraska irrigation district thwarts ransomware attack with automatic backup

A scheme by hackers who disabled antivirus software on a computer system for the Central Platte Natural Resources District in Nebraska, then infected it with ransomware, was thwarted by an automated program that backed up the systems every 15 minutes, according to a report in the Lincoln Journal-Star.

It doesn't appear that the miscreants were able to penetrate the database of those served by the district and which houses their Social Security numbers as well as name and addresses, the Journal-Star cited the district's general manager, Lyndon Vogt, as saying.

The district was contacted by someone from Russia, demanding ransom but didn't pay up because the system was automatically backed up every 15 minutes.