Over 225 mayors in U.S support the decision not to pay ransom to hackers

Over 225 mayors in the United States support a resolution not to pay ransoms to hackers. The resolution, entitled “Opposing Payment To Ransomeware Attack Perpetrators,” states that mayors should “united against paying ransoms in the event of an IT security breach.”

The resolution comes from the annual US Mayors Conference held in Honolulu from June 28th to July 1st. According to the statement, at least 170 counties, city or state government systems have been targeted by ransomware attacks since 2013. The malware programs used by these attacks make the system inoperable, and hackers usually require payment in the form of cryptocurrency.

Before the resolution was released, nearly 20 US cities were attacked by ransomware this year, including Lake City, Florida, which authorized 43 BITs to be paid to hackers to regain access to their mobile phones and email systems. Another high-profile attack in Baltimore began in May, which shut down important urban systems through phishing emails. The hacker asked the city to pay 13 bitcoins.

Source: The New York Times