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Cybersecurity experts have said that Baltimore was playing with fire while the deadline to pay thousands of dollars in ransom to the pirates who hold several hostage servers in the city is now over.
It's been two weeks since a cyberattack paralyzed Baltimore's computer network. The internet thieves initially wanted 13 bitcoins – about $ 100,000 – but the amount has since increased by $ 10,000 a day. The deadline for payment – Friday – has expired. The city does not say if it paid but several servers were still unusable Monday.
"What's frustrating with Baltimore, is that it's been a long time since the infection has not been infected," said Daniel Tobok, CEO of Cytelligence, at Fox News. "If they are not yet fully operational, why are they still playing with that?"
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Tobok, whose company has helped 500 municipalities affected by ransomware attacks, says that it does not necessarily advocate paying cyber crooks, but that he believes that in some cases, "you're not sure." 39, have no choice, you must make a commercial decision.
He also warns that if Baltimore continues to stall, the result could be devastating.
"Baltimore plays with time," he said. "They will come to a point where they have two choices – A. The (ransom demands) will skyrocket or B. Hackers will close the account they've used and exit."
If this happens, any communication or hope of restoring the data could be put aside, Tobok said.
Rupert Choudhry, a resident of Baltimore, says he "holds his breath" and fears that it may be the calm that reigns before an even bigger storm.
"We are all in a wait-and-see mode," Choudhry told Fox News.
The cyber squad of the FBI and Microsoft experts have worked tirelessly to help the largest city in Maryland. The mayor's office told Fox News Monday that there had been no increase in the severity of the attack, but did not provide more details to this subject.
On Friday, Mayor Jack Young said he was unable to provide "a precise timetable for the restoration of all systems".
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"Like any big business, we have thousands of systems and applications," he said in a statement sent to Fox. "Our goal is to restore essential services online to ensure that safety remains one of our top priorities throughout this process."
He added that the city could see "partial services begin to restore in a few weeks", while some of the "most complex systems could take months in the recovery process".
The attack itself has already had a devastating domino effect in Charm City. Residents have not been able to pay their bills online; financial services employees can only accept checks and money orders. No real estate transactions have been carried out since the attack. Most major title insurance companies have even banned their agents from issuing policies for real estate in Baltimore, according to the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors.
Citing the ongoing criminal investigation, the city's chief information officer, Frank Johnson, and other city leaders said their hands were tied and they could not provide details on the attack or realistically predict when the city would be operational.
They have several "alternatives" in place that allow some departments to slowly return to business. Johnson called the situation "incredibly fluid".
"Everyone who works in this sector will tell you that as you learn more, these plans change every minute," he said.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time Baltimore is facing cyberattacks.
Under Johnson's supervision, there were two major breaches in the city's computer systems.
The latest set of problems comes a little over a year after a new ransomware attack that hit Baltimore 's 911 emergency number dispatch system, causing the system' s split system to shut down. Automated emergency for 17 hours. The March 2018 attack required the operation of the critical 911 service in manual mode.
Johnson is one of the highest paid employees in the city and earns $ 250,000 a year. It's more than the mayor, the attorney general and the health commissioner are paid.
This latest attack took place about a week after the dismissal of a city employee who, according to the Inspector General, had downloaded thousands of sexually explicit images on his work computer.
While all municipalities are threatened by malicious programs, cybersecurity experts say that organizations that have been victims of such attacks often have not done extensive work to regularly patch systems.
Asher DeMetz, senior security consultant for technology company Sungard Availability Services, told The Associated Press that the number of days off Baltimore's servers is unusually long.
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"The city of Baltimore should have been prepared with a recovery program and be able to recover in a much shorter time, which would be dictated by a risk assessment indicating how long they could afford to stay out of business." said DeMetz. "They should be ready, especially after the previous attack, to recover ransomware."
In the last month alone, Stuart City, Florida, New York State, Imperial County, Cleveland Airport, Genesee County, Fisher County, Texas and the School District of Sugar City are among the known cyberattacks.
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