A Ransomware attack on US Jail has reportedly locked down inmates in their respective cells as the access to their automated doors was knocked out completely since January 5th,2021.
The jail in discussion is Metropolitan Detention Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico despite that, reports are in that the situation seems to be slowly coming under control–all because of the hard work of the IT staff who were working 24/7 to bring back the operations to normalcy.
Cybersecurity Insiders learnt from its sources that hackers somehow gained access to the systems in Christmas holidays of 2021 and disrupted and lock access to the internet services at the jail along with the database storing prisoner records.
Information is out that surveillance cameras covering the activities of inmates were severely affected by the incident. And access to records such as inmates facing trials regarding Se%^al assault and fighting, illegal trafficking of humans, animals along with banned drugged substances were blocked from access to the law enforcement.
Till the entire situation comes under control, the jail authorities have opted to deploy additional forces regarding physical security and manual handling of prison doors with key staff was ordered.
Note 1- Darkside Ransomware Group is suspected to be behind the incident. However, there is no official announcement yet.
Note 2–The above stated ransomware gang that demands $10 million as a minimum ransom is reported to have made more that half a billion dollars as payments in the first half of 2021 alone.