The latest victim of a calculated ransomware attack was San Francisco’s transportation agency, making people around the nation wonder if their transit services are also at risk. San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency (Muni) was hit by a hack that allowed customers to travel for free.
The hacker demanded 100 Bitcoin in ransom, or $73,000 but the transportation agency said they refused to pay. In an effort to lessen the impact on customers, the city was forced to turn off all ticketing machines on the network, which allowed travelers to journey for free.
Back in 2008, a teenager was able to hack a transit system in Lodz, Poland and derail four trams. In the same year, hackers found a way to hack the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, although they never launched an attack. Security researchers from the University of Michigan found a way to manipulate 1,000 traffic lights just by using a laptop and a wireless radio.
As ransomware threats rise, transportation agencies and other organizations should use the following tips to keep their systems protected from attacks:
- A good idea for organizations to back up their information on a different network
- Organizations should also partition their data, so malware doesn’t get a chance to infect entire network.
- Employees should know to avoid clicking on malicious links from untrustworthy email addresses
- Organizations can use endpoint protection software to automatically address and neutralize threats before they get a chance to attack.
Promisec Endpoint Manager (PEM) lets organizations keep their systems secure from ransomware threats. PEM lets organizations monitor their networks for suspicious activity, which prevents ransomware attacks from going unnoticed.
No comments:
Post a Comment