Baltimore: Ransomware ends real estate transactions while officials refuse to pay 13 Bitcoin Ransom

The city government of Baltimore has been under siege for more than a week after being hit by a ransomware attack earlier this month. While officials refused to pay a bitcoin ransom demanded by hackers, real estate transactions in the city were halted.

According to The Baltimore Sun, the attack disrupted the city's servers to such an extent that its communications network was severely affected. At present, the essential systems required for real estate transactions are offline, which has plunged the entire industry into chaos in Baltimore.

Realtors and securities firms say ransomeware attack #Baltimore The City closed the home buying and selling market in one of its busiest months. Nothing is done: no closing, no title … nothing. Hundreds of people are in limbo. @ WMAR2News pic.twitter.com/n1PB7GAZrL

– Brian Kuebler (@BrianKuebler_) May 14, 2019

This, like real estate can not be bought or sold. The real estate transactions are stopped because the title insurance companies can not currently access the servers of the city to check if the properties are free of privileges.

Taxes on transfers, property taxes and water bills would also have been affected. Amy Caplan, director of operations at Broadview Title, revealed that servers containing critical real estate data have crashed, forcing the securities firms to ask their agents to stop trading in Baltimore. Caplan would have said:

This paralyzes the whole city for sure. There is no resolution. It seems that there is no emergency plan in place for the city of Baltimore.

Baltimore Mayor Bernand C. "Jack" Young told city council members that officials "were working to minimize any impact" on real estate transactions in the city, although he acknowledged that there was no real impact on real estate transactions in the city. Ransomware attack paralyzed his real estate sector.

Real estate data show that since the beginning of the May 7 attack, various transactions have been stopped. Currently, the city has 1,500 pending sales. Real estate, even if it is one of the most affected, is not the only suffering because of the attack.

The Baltimore Sun notes that the city's police systems and others are down, forcing a lot to start using a pen and paper. The city refused to pay the pirates, who demand a ransom of 13 BTC (92,000 USD) to end the attack, or a ransom of 3 BTC (21,400 USD) to decipher a specific system.

A new cryptocurrency ransomware could become very dangerous, warn researchers https://t.co/2v47nc85Rl #Anatova #Security #Hyphen #Cryptocurrency #Ransomware

– CryptoGlobe (@CryptoGlobeInfo) January 23, 2019

Baltimore is attacked by a new type of ransomware software called "Robbinhood". The researchers have not yet determined who is behind, although the cyber security firm Armor was able to identify a tweet of the attackers.