Ryuk, Ryuk, Ryuk: Georgia’s courts hit by ransomware
Georgia’s Judicial Council and Administrative Office of the Courts is the victim of the latest ransomware attack against state and local agencies. And this looks like the same type of attack that took down the systems of at least two Florida municipal governments in June.
Administrative Office of the Courts spokesman Bruce Shaw confirmed the ransomware attack to Atlanta’s Channel 11 News. The Administrative Office of the Courts’ website is currently offline.
Shaw told 11 News that some systems had not been affected by the ransomware but that all systems connected to the network had been taken offline to prevent the ransomware from spreading. The Courts’ IT department was in contact with “external agencies” to coordinate a response to the attack, Shaw said.
Ars attempted to reach Shaw for comment, but he was not available. And no details were shared about the ransomware or the demand from its operator. But some reports link the attack to the same Ryuk ransomware that hit at least two Florida local governments last month.
Meanwhile, one of those Florida cities, Lake City, has apparently fired one employee after being forced to pay $460,000 worth of bitcoin to the ransomware operator. All but $10,000 of that amount was covered by insurance. Lake City Mayor Stephen Witt told WCJB News, “Our city manager did make a decision to terminate one employee, and he is revamping out [the] whole IT department to comply with what we need to be able to overcome what happened this last week… so it doesn’t happen again.”
A special session of the Village Council of Key Biscayne, Florida, was held Friday night, with a second session on Saturday, to determine how to respond to the Ryuk ransomware attack on the village’s systems. Local officials have not responded yet to questions on the outcome of that meeting.
This story, as with all of the ransomware stories over the past week, is still developing. We will update as more details emerge.
