SamSam Ransomware leads to shut down of 2k computers in Colorado

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SamSam Ransomware is said to have hit the Colorado Department of Transportation(DoT) so badly that the state agency chose to the shut down over 2,000 computers on February 21st,2018. Officials at the Colorado DOT have confirmed that the shut down was a part of a plan to contain the ransomware from spreading from 21 infected computers to other systems in the network.

The agency’s staff are working with the security firm McAfee to recover the affected workstations and safeguard other network endpoints from being infected with the malware.

A few hours ago, Colorado DOT released a press statement saying that crucial systems were in no way infected by the malware. This includes those managing road surveillance CCTV cameras, traffic alerts, message boards, water utility and others. This was evident as the Agency’s twitter feed was continuing to buzz with various traffic alerts and crucial notifications even after the shutdown.

Brandi Simmons, a state spokesperson said that the ransomware authors or spreaders are demanding a ransom in Bitcoin cryptocurrency. And the agency is in no mood to fulfill their demands. They are currently working on reviving the systems from the available backups and are planning to install an advanced threat detection system into their IT Infrastructure.

FBI and the staff at the governor Hickenlooper’s officer of Information technology are busy investigating the source which spread the SamSam Ransomware to the Colorado computer network.

But a source from Governor’s office who likes to stay anonymous said that the malware could have been injected into the network through an email phishing campaign.

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Naveen Goud is a writer at Cybersecurity Insiders covering topics such as Mergers & Acquisitions, Startups, Cyber Attacks, Cloud Security and Mobile Security

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