This appeared on Saturday las week:
Victoria vows ransoms from cyber criminals will be ignored as battle to access hospital data continues
Alex White, Exclusive, Sunday Herald Sun
December 21, 2019 9:00pm
Subscriber only
Hackers demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars in ransoms have infiltrated government computer systems in Victoria.
The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal ransomware has infiltrated several government agencies since July last year.
Statewide there is one cyber attack on government bodies every 45 seconds. But the names of those targeted remains secret.
Government cyber security principal adviser David Cullen said cyber criminals had demanded tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands — usually to be paid in bitcoin.
“I want to stress the point, during our response we do not ever consider paying a ransom,” Mr Cullen said.
“We don’t want organisations paying ransoms either. The statistics prove that there is no guarantee of getting your data back. The second point here is paying ransom puts money into the hands of criminals.
“Instead of paying a ransom, we would rather see organisations spend the money on improving their cyber security.”
The security of Victoria’s computer systems has come under the spotlight following a damaging ransomware attack on hospitals in September in Gippsland and Geelong. The state’s “paramedic cyber team” received a ransom note during the ordeal but refused to negotiate. Some of the network and data affected still cannot be accessed.
More here:
The original attack(s) and aftermath were described here:
This all started over three months ago. One does wonder just how poorly these institutions were prepared to have it take this long to restore services as the article implies. Any one know more from on the ground?
David.
Sanitation of this nature is a complicated exercise
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