$1.1M Paid to Resolve Ransomware Attack on California County

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California County and insurers paid $1.1 million to resolve a ransomware attack on a law enforcement computer network, Southern California News Group reported.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department announced in April that a “network disruption” was being investigated by information technology staff and forensic specialists, and that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security were notified.

County spokesperson David Wert said the county paid $511,852 and the remainder was covered by insurance, the news group reported Thursday.

“The decision whether to render payment was the subject of careful consideration, ” Wert said.

The Los Angeles Times reported that law enforcement sources, who were not identified, said the hackers work out of Eastern Europe. They have ties to a larger network of Russian hacking operations that regularly target U.S. entities and extort payouts that are designed to be untraceable, the Times said.

Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Gloria Huerta said an investigation is continuing to try to determine whether any information was stolen and whether the ransom payment can be traced to identify the hacker.

Sheriff Shannon Dicus said this week that public safety wasn’t compromised by the ransomware attack but it hindered some tasks.

Deputies, for example, could not access a system that provides information on whether a person is wanted for crimes elsewhere in the country, so they had to request that other agencies make the record checks, Dicus said.