Ransomware attack paralyzes Seville government

A cyber attack has largely paralyzed the government of Seville. Under no circumstances will the millions of dollars in ransoms demanded by the hackers be paid, Mayor José Luis Sanz told regional radio station Canal Sur Radio. The website of Spain’s fourth largest city was unavailable for the third day in a row on Thursday.

In addition, the approximately 4,000 computers in the city administration could no longer be used. Citizens were forced to personally handle numerous administrative procedures. The police and fire brigade were also affected, reports Canal Sur Radio.

A maximum of 5 million euros was demanded

According to official information, large parts of Seville’s software have been infected by a malware (ransomware) called Lockbit. The British Royal Mail was attacked at the beginning of this year with this blackmail software, which criminals can use to encrypt data and thus render it useless. This attack had made shipping abroad impossible for weeks.

Ransomware is malware that can be used, for example, to block access to remote computers. The hackers extort large sums of ransom so that the lock can be lifted again.

According to media reports, the hackers demanded a ransom of between 1.5 and 5 million euros from Seville. However, this demand was “not taken into account for a second”, Mayor Sanz assured.

He told Canal Sur Radio that the municipality’s priority is not to restore the system as soon as possible, but to do it “with the greatest possible guarantees”. Basically, the hackers “did not collect any data”, but only blocked it.

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(t-online/dsc)