Posted by - December 06, 2016

Several weeks ago, the MUNI, San Francisco’s transportation system, was hit hard by a ransomware attack which forced its systems to allow passengers to ride for free. The hackers demanded 100 Bitcoins, which, at a conversion rate of $700/1btc, equates to $70,000. SFMTA has not paid the ransom; however, for fear that it will only encourage future attacks.

Experts think the hack was not deliberate, but rather a chance infection by an employee who unwittingly opened an infected file on their computer, allowing the malware to make its way to over 2,000 systems including servers, workstations, and ticketing machines.

The San Francisco Municipal Transport Agency (SFMTA) had their systems back up and running by the Sunday of the weekend in which it was affected and were able to start charging fares again. But imagine if this were your company affected because of a single careless employee. A huge organization can withstand the loss of revenue over the course of several days, but can your company?

Also, the SFMTA was able to get their systems back up and running in a few days. Do you know how quickly you would be able to recover without having to pay the ransom? How secure and reliable are your backups, if you have any at all? Lucky for you, Optfinity offers free assessments so you know exactly how vulnerable and protected your systems are. Don’t wait till you’re a victim. Secure yourself and your company today.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *