Hack job
Our neighbor to the south, Farmington, made headlines recently – but for less-than-auspicious reasons. On Jan. 3, the City of Farmington’s computer system was hit by the SamSam ransomware virus. The attack locked city workers out of their computers and demanded 3 bitcoin (about $35,000) to re-gain access.
Fortunately, the FBI advised City Manager Rob Mayes not to pay the ransom, and the city was able to eventually recover the encrypted files, according to a report in the Farmington Daily Times.
According to a press release from the city, no personal information was compromised and the breach did not affect utility operations, public safety services or the city email systems.
The city was back up and running by Jan. 18. The FBI is continuing to investigate the case.
According to HealthCare IT News, there’s been an uptick in SamSam attacks since Jan. 11. Hospitals seem particularly vulnerable to the attacks, which gain access by scanning the internet for open RDP connections.
The virus first appeared in the health-care sector in 2016 and is a customized strain used in targeted attacks. And to think, MRSA used to be the only variant strain you had to worry about in hospitals.
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