Johannesburg Refuses to Pay Hackers’ 4 Bitcoin Ransom

4 Bitcoin Ransom

Johannesburg authorities have refused to pay 4 Bitcoin ransom to hackers who targeted municipal systems last week.

Via a statement on its official Twitter handle on October 28th, the Johannesburg city council confirmed the attack had affected services that included billing, property valuation and land information systems, as well as its eHealth and Libraries services.

The hack which occurred on October 24th, was accompanied by a ransom demand of 4 Bitcoin (BTC) . This is close to $37,000 at press time.

Funzela Ngobeni, Councillor for Finance responsible for Group Information and Communications Technology has affirmed that authorities will not concede to the hackers’ demands.

She said the city is sure it can “restore systems to full functionality” and has already brought up several of its critical customer-facing systems.

Ngobeni said: “The City has always taken a position against lawlessness of any nature and form,” “This cyber-attack is being seen not only as an attack on the City’s system — but as an attack on the people of our City.”

According to a report by CNN, the hackers had emailed employees directly demanding Bitcoin payments.

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