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You are here: Home / City Hall / Florida City Agrees to Pay Malware Ransom

Florida City Agrees to Pay Malware Ransom

June 20, 2019 at 7:55 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Riviera Beach City Council authorized the city’s insurer to pay nearly $600,000 worth of ransom to regain access to data walled off through an attack on the city’s computer systems,” the Palm Beach Post reports.

“The city’s email and computer systems, at City Hall, the city’s Port Center offices and elsewhere, including those that control city finances and water utility pump stations and testing systems, are still only partially back online, two weeks after the ransomware attack was disclosed. But crucial data encrypted by the attackers remains beyond reach and there was no explanation of whether the city has any guarantee that the ransomers will release it if paid.”

“More than 50 cities across the United States, large and small, have been hit by ransomware attacks during the past two years.”

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Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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