Requena Town Hall sacrifice on November 27 Cyber attack that blocks servers and all computers in the council, forcing it to paralyze all administrative management and processing activity. cyber criminals demanded payment of $500,000 bitcoins for the ransom of computer systems. It brings the facts to the attention of the Civil Guard, an amount that the Council flatly refuses to pay.
Ten days later, the problem is still unresolved, even though the City Council gave the guarantee. the virus has already been detected and gradually the blocks are being removed from the servers one by one. Sources from the Requena town hall said, “We have good computer scientists and the workers understand the problem and are collaborating to try to work as normally as possible.” Cybercrime experts assess both the entry route and the time of entry, and the potential damage to systems by cybercriminals.
Among the computer servers affected is the payroll payment system. Indeed, last Wednesday, November 30th – civil servants’ salaries are paid on the last working day of the month – due to this ‘hack’ it was not possible to make regular salary payments and workers So far they have only been able to collect a 50% advance. from his salary.
Electronic office in Albacete
According to municipal sources, workers are able to carry out most of their duties as the electronic office contracted with the Albacete City Council, such as the municipalities of Mislata and Quart, is not affected. Of course, every official must using personal computers The servers on which the information belonging to the Council and their own servers are stored cannot be manipulated until they have been hacked and analyzed by telematics crime experts.
The hackers left a message with a link where they demanded the ransom money on the infected computers; Over $500,000 in Bitcoin. Finally, in a sarcastic tone, The cybercriminals added that they were satisfied with 500,000..
With regard to possible confidential information that they may have accessed from the City Council, they ensure that it is immediately brought to the attention of the Spanish Data Protection Agency and that they follow all its steps. Similarly, the National Cryptology Center (CCN), which specializes in cybersecurity in public institutions, is aware of what’s going on.
Other attacks on Valencia city halls
Cybercriminals saw a loophole in city councils’ security protocols that prevented them from hacking into and infecting computer systems, many of which were obsolete, and then demanding a certain amount of ransom money. Although all consulates usually refuse to pay, these cyberattacks are not always reported and are rarely prosecuted, according to sources specializing in telematics crimes.
In recent years, the municipalities of Carcaixent, Cheste or Manises and the port of Castelló have been subjected to such computer attacks.
Sometimes, as in the cyber-attack on the Carcaixent town hall in October 2020, cybercriminals use an email opened by any worker from one of the municipal computers to use a Trojan virus to infect the rest and enter municipal servers. municipality in question It is therefore important not to open links of unknown or dubious origin.
Source: Informacion
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