Cybercriminals convey reportedly targeted a bring out of schools inwards Taiwan, threatening to destroy their estimator systems as well as information if a bitcoin ransom isn’t paid.
According to a written report in Focus Taiwan, a national intelligence agency, malicious hackers convey compromised estimator networks from ix schools inwards Hualien, Taiwan’s largest county situated on the eastern coast of the country. The cybercriminals are demanding a payment of 8 bitcoins (approx. $9,600), the Hualien County authorities revealed. Taking command of a bring out of schools’ printers, hackers convey left a bring out of undisclosed threats amongst sheets of newspaper print-outs, according to the county’s instruction department.
So far, no bitcoin ransoms convey been paid. Instead, schools convey received instructions from the instruction subdivision to password-protect their printers as well as buy antivirus software to mitigate cyberattacks.
While fears of a information compromise remain, at that topographic point is no testify to demo whatsoever leak of information. It’s alone probable that the cyberattack was carried out through ransomware malware, a mutual ploy for cybercriminals to extort ransom from victims inwards telephone substitution for decryption keys to unlock the compromised computers as well as network.
Figures from the country’s ministry building demo that at to the lowest degree 55 schools inwards Taiwan convey been targeted as well as attacked past times hackers demanding bitcoin ransoms, since the plough of the year. Law enforcement officials convey deployed investigators to the affected schools but law have, therefore far, been unable to decide the cybercriminal performance instigating the attacks.
A Global Menace
Extorting bitcoin through ransomware has conk a global menace to such an extent that large businesses convey started stockpiling the cryptocurrency. Threat intelligence statistics peg ransom payments to convey reached $ 1 billion inwards 2016, representing a 4000% growth inwards a year. Through 2015, the cybercriminal grouping behind the then-infamous Cryptowall 3.0 variant of ransomware reportedly raked inwards an estimated $325 million in bitcoin. Hundreds of thousands of individuals around the the world became victims of the malware. In figures from Dec 2016, cybersecurity theater Kaspersky estimates that i delineate of piece of occupation organization is hitting every xl seconds past times a ransomware, on average. It’s worse for individuals, where the charge per unit of measurement went from twenty seconds to every 10 seconds concluding year.
