State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Criminals Increasingly Hold Government Computers for Ransom

Stateline: In Maine, cybercriminals took over the computer system shared by five police agencies for about two weeks last year until the departments paid the crooks $300. In Los Angeles, a large hospital shelled out $17,000 this year to regain access to its electronic medical records that criminal hackers took hostage. And in eastern Ohio, Columbiana County was forced to pay more than $2,800 in ransom in June after computers in its juvenile court system became infected.

Cyber-age extortionists — who use so-called ransomware software to hijack computer systems and hold them hostage until their victims pay a ransom — increasingly are preying on local governments, hospitals and even police departments, and forcing officials to decide whether to meet the demands or risk losing their data.

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