Knoxville, a downtown in Tennessee has reportedly become a victim of a ransomware attack between June 10th and 11th of this year, and the news is out that the officials had to shut down all their systems to contain the malware spread and also the repercussions related to the cyber attack.
According to the Knoxville, news aired yesterday by WVLT, a child company of Gray Television the file-encrypting malware attack took place last week by encrypting the entire database on the network which includes internal IT assets as well along with the websites related to the public like knoxvilletn.gov, law and the mayor.
FBI has been informed about the incident and a deep probe is being done to track down the culprits behind the attack.
Glen Jacobs, the Mayor of Knox County confirmed the incident through one of his tweets and the former WWE wrestler said that the recovery of the data will be done as per the suggestions provided by security analysts and law enforcement.
With the latest development, Knoxville tn has joined the list of American cities which have been hit by a ransomware attack in the past 18 months and the victimized city names are as follows- Wilmer, New Bedford, Pensacola, Lake City, Riviera Beach, Augusta, Baltimore, Denver, New Orleans, Atlanta.
Note- Till 2018, the definition of ransomware attack remained as malware which encrypts a database until a ransom is paid. But from early 2019, the cybercriminals spreading ransomware gangs were seen stealing the data from the victimized database at first and then locking it down from access. In the second instance, ransomware gangs get an opportunity to sell the stolen data in case the victims reject the ransom demand.
