Cyber Security News
Cities at Risk
December 06, 2016
San Francisco (California) Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) payment systems were offline over the weekend due to a ransomware attack. The attack began on Friday, November 25 and was contained by Sunday. SFMTA is in the process of restoring systems to operational status. The agency has refused to pay the US $73,000 ransom demand. In a note to Wired, the attacker claims this first attack was a "proof of concept," and critical infrastructure guru Mike Assante told Wired, "Unlike this incident, in a very sophisticated attack, they not only impact control systems, but also impede the ability to restore them." In other words public services can be out for a long time.