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Security United States Technology

US Mayors Resolve Not To Pay Hackers Over Ransomware Attacks (cnet.com) 41

More than 225 U.S. mayors have signed on to a resolution not to pay ransoms to hackers. It's a collective stand against the ransomware attacks that have crippled city government computer systems in recent years. CNET reports: The resolution was adopted at the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting, which took place late June and early July in Honolulu. "The United States Conference of Mayors stands united against paying ransoms in the event of an IT security breach," the resolution reads. This could give city leaders across the US some leverage against hackers. The 227 mayors who attended the meeting agreed to adopt the resolution, but the US Conference of Mayors represents more than 1,400 cities with populations over 30,000.
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US Mayors Resolve Not To Pay Hackers Over Ransomware Attacks

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  • But will Slashdot pay a ransom to prevent any more dupes [slashdot.org]? Find out tomorrow!

  • bounty for tracking down and exposing identities of ransomers

    I have a feeling a lot are in former soviet union countries and would get what's coming to them....

  • So, um, backups? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Friday July 12, 2019 @08:43PM (#58917398)
    Did they resolve to pay their IT depts enough to make backups, so next time they can just wipe their systems and reinstall everything? I'm gonna have to go with no. Then again, I'm old, I've been watching 'gub'mint' a long time, and realize they not only don't understand the issues, they don't really care as long as they can point the finger elsewhere.
    • You back up every single desktop? I mean full backup and not incremental?! Do the servers have full backup over provisioned by double the storage?!

      90% of sites use incremental backups and are not over provisioned enough for a full disk encryption.

      Easier said then done on a government shoe string budget. No everyone works in a fortune 250 company with an unlimited budget for things like that

  • Big, tough mayors (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Chewbacon ( 797801 ) on Friday July 12, 2019 @08:58PM (#58917444)

    We won't pay them, but our insurers will!

    The fine print gets ya. So pay for a real backup plan, then, and minimize data loss in the event Curtis opens the wrong FWD: CUTE CAT email.

    • Have you ever been a system administrator? Full backup is rare and and no one overprovisions enough with incremental backups for a full disk encryption which makes your backup useless.

  • U.S. government have gone from helplessly stupid to hopelessly dumb on my list, Good job.
  • "We're setting oil production limits at XX million barrels of oil a day." Then they break their own rules and sell under the table over their own caps.

    It's a noble thing to try, but we'll see how much resolve they have when their city gets hacked because someone just couldn't skip the porn or pirated cable streams at work.

  • The 227 mayors who attended the meeting agreed to adopt the resolution, but{{clarification needed}} the US Conference of Mayors represents more than 1,400 cities with populations over 30,000.

  • ... mayor to fold when s/he realizes it's a city manager/city counsel call.

    Mayors express grief after mass shootings and aren't in the loop on ransomware.

  • Here's an update on the Baltimore RobbinHood attack as of 7/11: https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2019/06/11/baltimore-ransomware-attack-whats-working-whats-still-down/

    Tl;dr: stuff is still messed up. Badly. I live about 15 miles from Baltimore, thankfully in a different jurisdiction, so I'm not affected but I do hear about it a lot.

    Mindless political posturing meets reality. Hello, reality. How to get yourself in this situation:
    1. Set up office in a DMZ that is also the heroin capital of America where no

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