Unless you've already taken cover in your backyard bunker, you've probably heard the City of Atlanta is under a ransomware attack.
If you're unfamiliar with the term, a ransomware attack is a hacking tactic used to encrypt a victim's data with the threat of either publishing it or blocking access until a ransom is paid.
In this case, city officials have been unable to access internal applications and residents are blocked from doing simple tasks, such as paying bills and accessing court records, online.
Public safety, water systems and the airport have experienced no threats during the attack, however, MARTA was experiencing outages on customer-used platforms on Thursday.
The hacker has set a bitcoin price of $6,800 per unit, or $51,000 to unlock the entire system.
FBI and Homeland Security are already on the job, but Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said in a press conference yesterday it's too early to know the full extent of the attack. She warned that anyone who's done business with the city could be at risk.
What does this mean for us in the tech world?
It's possible this ransomware attack is one of many to come, with the reported rise in hacking trends.
Reuters reported in 2016 that the total costs from ransomware attacks had already reached $209M in the first three months of that year. Newsweek discovered mobile ransomware had risen by more than 250% within the first few months of 2017 and was expected to cost $5B worldwide. Cybersecurity Ventures predicted that number would rise to $11.5B in 2019.
Police have not stated whether they have identified any suspects.
