HE The attack on the Seville City Council was carried out by one of the most important hacker groups in the world., as confirmed by the consistency itself. It is common practice for hackers to request information in these types of attacks. Recovery For the recovery of services and systems, this is also requested from the City Council, which will not negotiate in any way with cybercriminals.
Hackers operate under ‘Lockbit’, a computer attack system with a long history. The municipality confirmed that They asked for $5 million in encrypted message, then reduced it to 1.5 million. These cybercriminals are behind recent attacks, such as the attack on the British postal service Royal Mail last January, the City Council reported. They use the world’s fastest ransomware, at least for now, that can encrypt 53GB of data in just four minutes. Thus, ‘LockBit’ becomes one of the biggest current threats in cyber security.
The municipality team stated that the issue has been addressed and investigated by CCN-CERT, which the municipality works with, as well as the police.
According to the information provided, City Council technicians and outside personnel We have been working since Tuesday to return to normal as soon as possible.. All computer services were interrupted this Monday after learning of the cyberattack and will remain suspended until the hack is resolved.
Seville City Council Finance and Digital Transformation Delegate Juan Bueno (PP) was present at the council to confirm that they will not pay any ransom and that the municipal team is working with experts from the National Cryptology Center (CCN). -CERT) and Telefónica company combating the cyberattack. As of this Monday, the events have been reported to the National Data Protection Center and the National Police and Civil Guard have been contacted; so far, no complaints have been made on the express instructions of the authorities, waiting for final report with all documents.
City Council believes it knows “99%” of the source of the attack and the terminal where the infection was calmed, but Police Call for “Prudence”, explained the responsible councillor. The 4,000 computer terminals owned by the municipality of Seville are currently disconnected from the network. Electronic transactions cannot be madeIt is a situation that citizens will notice, especially in paying taxes. The Local Police or Fire Brigade is operating as “normal” as the town hall states, with the exception of handling complaints via mobile devices.
By consistency they assure today Hackers have no proof they have citizen data or have access to the systemEven though after activating Lockbit they sent a cryptic message assessing the damage they could do up to $5 million to claim 1.5 million bail. But the mayor José Luis Sanz’s (PP) order, according to the mayor Juan Bueno’s statement, if the City Council trusts him and gets the computer system back up and running, cybercriminals can take advantage of any loophole to carry out the attack. is is let the experts work “without rush” and with all guarantees that all Seville residents’ information and personal data are safe. Insisting that the city council “will not accept any form of blackmail,” the city spokesman said, “We cannot make the mistake these criminals expect.”
‘Lockbit’ works by intercepting data and blocking computer systems and then demanding a ransom payment to release them. The hacker obtains profits through blackmail and threatens to steal data and illegally publish it as blackmail if the victim does not pay.