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2019-05-23 -Lurid Crime Tales-

Hackers have been holding the city of Baltimore’s computers hostage for 2 weeks

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Posted by Fred 2019-05-23 00:00|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [11132 views ] Top

#1 If this was a professional setup the maximal possible damage should be the loss of data generated between regular backups, i.e. in an interval no larger than a workday.

Is this a more or less clever attempt to destroy records by claiming they were eaten by evil hackers ~~see IRS~~ ?

Posted by Elmerert Hupens2660 2019-05-23 01:31|| 2019-05-23 01:31|| Front Page Top

#2 No. It's Baltimore. I don't think the idea of nightly data backup has caught on yet.

Posted by Fred 2019-05-23 01:48|| 2019-05-23 01:48|| Front Page Top

#3 Some strategies perform one full, then a series of incremental backups over a span of time until the next full backup after which the prior incremental set is deleted.

Full recovery requires restoring one backup plus the incremental set. Much faster to create and restore than a full nightly.

Posted by Skidmark 2019-05-23 02:29|| 2019-05-23 02:29|| Front Page Top

#4 These attacks are laughably easy to thwart. Automatic backups, separate databases, VMs that can be refreshed quickly, etc.

The fact it has taken so long to recover should speak volumes on how competent the government IT section is.

Posted by DarthVader 2019-05-23 05:35|| 2019-05-23 05:35|| Front Page Top

#5 #4 These attacks are laughably easy to thwart. Automatic backups, separate databases, VMs that can be refreshed quickly, etc. The fact it has taken so long to recover should speak volumes on how competent the government IT section is.
Posted by: DarthVader 2019-05-23 05:35

Lord Vader,

The difficulty here is that useful, competent IT security was never the point, but getting money to connected political friends was more important.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2019-05-23 06:08|| 2019-05-23 06:08|| Front Page Top

#6 ^

Posted by Procopius2k 2019-05-23 08:38|| 2019-05-23 08:38|| Front Page Top

#7 One clue is the hackers can't spell "tick tock".

Posted by Bobby 2019-05-23 08:43|| 2019-05-23 08:43|| Front Page Top

#8 #7 - Ballymore Public Skool grads?

Posted by Frank G 2019-05-23 09:05|| 2019-05-23 09:05|| Front Page Top

#9 Sometimes it is cheaper to pay. It may not be a spelling mistake Bobby, Tik Tak is Dutch.

Posted by BernardZ 2019-05-23 09:12|| 2019-05-23 09:12|| Front Page Top

#10 Baltimore is just full of Bad Luck.

Posted by swksvolFF 2019-05-23 11:35|| 2019-05-23 11:35|| Front Page Top

#11 Government IT? Either the lowest bidder or some politician's relative that knows how to turn on a computer.

Posted by Bob Grorong1136 2019-05-23 11:49|| 2019-05-23 11:49|| Front Page Top

#12 When the Internet first got going everybody thought it was incredibly cool and everybody wanted to be on it. But the fact is, some sensitive databases have no business on the Internet. Further, if they must be online, they should be protected by multiple firewalls. If regular backups were not being done somebody needs to be fired. But regular backups are not enough. The backups should be tested by restoring them to a spare server and that spare server should be at a remote location and ready to switch over to production at a moment's notice. My experience is that, all too often, failure to implement these measures is a risk that senior management is willing to take for the sake of other, jazzier budget items. All too often, senior management don't know what they don't know and they won't listen to the peons who do know. In Baltimore they are now finding out. But then, it's Baltimore, a blue city.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2019-05-23 13:57|| 2019-05-23 13:57|| Front Page Top

#13 Well, bike paths often have a higher budgetary priority than pumps, levees, or computer security---ya know.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2019-05-23 17:17|| 2019-05-23 17:17|| Front Page Top

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