Dutch University Paid Cybercriminals Ransom; Lessons Learned from This Attack
Dutch University Paid Cybercriminals Ransom; Lessons Learned from This Attack Maastricht University, a government-funded institution in the Netherlands, recently admitted that it paid ransomware attacker a ransom of 30 Bitcoin, valued nearly 220,000 USD at the time of payment. The University, in a statement, said it fell victim to a ransomware attack on December 23, 2019. While the University’s IT infrastructure consists of 1,647 Linux and Windows servers and 7,307 workstations, the University said, the attacker only hit 267 Windows servers. The University added that backups of these servers were also affected. In ransomware attacks, attackers prevent legitimate users from accessing their computers or files through the process known as encryption. Attackers then demand from their victims ransom in exchange for the decryption keys that would unlock the encrypted files.…
