Unidentified hackers have taken over Lincolnshire County Council’s computer systems and are demanding a £1 million ransom. The council’s digital database has been down for the past five days with a malware attack which afftected around 300 staff computers.
It was infected by a ransomware attack after a staff member opened an email with a document attached, unleashing the virus which had a message attached to it asking the council to pay £1 million to unlock the data.
Lincolnshire County Council said on Twitter: “The Customer Service Centre is still running a limited service due to a malware attack. Please only call if absolutely necessary. Thanks”.
Due to a malware attack our Customer Service Centre numbers are running a limited service. Please only call if absolutely necessary. Thanks
— Lincs County Council (@LincolnshireCC) January 27, 2016
However the authority is confident it is working to fix the situation and will have the malware dealt with soon. Judith Hetherington-Smith, chief information and commissioning officer for the county council said: “As soon as we spotted it systems were shut down to ensure personal data could not be compromised”. “The council is not going to be doing that. We have no intention of paying a ransom”, she added.
The hackers haven’t had access to their and the data has remained secure at all times according to Judith.
