Prison paralyzed by ransomware attack
A U.S. prison in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, was paralyzed by a cyber attack last week.
The attack even briefly shut down the prison’s automatic doors. (Illustration)
AFP
According to official documents, the ransomware attack paralyzed an American prison, disabled surveillance cameras and forced authorities to lock prisoners in their cells.
Hackers were able to break into the system that controls servers and internet access at the Bernalillo County Jail in southwestern New Mexico last week.
The attack even briefly shut down the prison’s automatic doors, forcing staff to manually open and lock each gate while inmates were bathing or walking.
“Only within their cells”
“The lack of video surveillance is a real concern for the safety of staff and detainees,” the latter reads a document sent to a local court on Jan. 6 while out of their rooms.
As a result, “prisoners are temporarily locked up in their cells” and without functions, the only exception being to possible medical care. The ransomware attack targeted only the prison in the Albuquerque area of Bernalilo County, New Mexico’s most populous city.
In a press release dated January 10, the district administration explained to its citizens that “computer problems” were still a result of the attack, for example preventing the issuance of marriage certificates, voter registration or real estate registration. Transactions. When asked by AFP, local officials did not respond Wednesday afternoon. No details have been released about the identity of the hackers or the nature of their claims.
42% increase
A ransomware attack involves hackers infiltrating a company’s computer network and then locking up data. Teachers are often asked to pay a ransom in the form of cryptocurrency, in exchange for opening, to those responsible for the organization, organization, or management.
According to the US Treasury Department, financial institutions operating in the United States alone reported about $ 590 million (540 million francs) in such attacks in the first half of 2021 alone. This figure was 42% higher than the amount announced for the whole of 2020, which explains the acceleration of the event.
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