Chinks in the armour

Public facing systems around the world must tighten security and put together disaster recovery plans

Baltimore in Maryland, USA, is becoming a test case for cyber-ransom. The Baltimore municipality has a population of about 600,000 and it’s the hub of a metropolitan conglomeration of 2.8 million. On May 7, hackers took control of municipal computer systems. They seized control of 10,000-odd municipal computers and encrypted access to the servers. 

Hence, government email systems are down, payments to the city departments can’t be made except by cash, real estate transactions, birth and death certificates, and so on, can’t be processed. The city has been forced to resort to paper transactions to keep municipal services running. 

The hackers demanded