The City of Hamilton refused to pay ransom when it was hacked in February 2024.
The City had no back-ups, no air gapping or separation of systems. Nearly every digital file the City possessed was encrypted and City business was paralyzed.
Beyond the principle of not rewarding criminals, the City cited that cybercriminals cannot be trusted. The City would need to replace all its compromised systems either way.
The costs of the incident could be over $100-million when system replacements and lost productivity are accounted for.
You can’t trust criminals.
Those Who Paid Hackers Asked to Pay Again
In December 2024, student information system software company PowerSchool was hacked in a “fairly straightforward network penetration.”
With the personal information of more than 60 million people compromised, the company paid a ransom in exchange for a promise from the criminals that the data would be destroyed.
Four months later, some of the 18,000-plus software customers are being individually targeted with ransom demands.
The “crooks may have lied” is how The Register reports this latest news.
“The case should also be a learning experience for anyone else who is tempted to pay a ransom to have their data deleted. Cybercrooks aren’t known for keeping their promises.”
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v. 1.0.0
Published: May 6, 2025
Last updated: May 6, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
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