Canada's University of Calgary paid almost $16,000 ($20,000 Canadian, ~£10,800) to recover crucial data that has been held hostage for more than a week by crypto ransomware attackers.
The ransom was disclosed on Wednesday morning in a statement issued by University of Calgary officials. It said university IT personnel had made progress in isolating the unnamed ransomware infection and restoring affected parts of the university network.
— Ars Technica
"It went on to warn that there's no guarantee paying the controversial ransom will lead to the lost data being recovered."
Attacks with ransomware have become increasingly frequent. As the name suggests, ransomware allows hackers to take computers hostage until the user pays up. The increasing prevalence of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has facilitated the rise in such attacks.
As the University of Calgary's Vice President stated, ""We are conducting world class research daily and we don’t know what we don’t know in terms of who’s been impacted and the last thing we want to do is lose someone’s life’s work."
For more on that state of privacy in our digital era, check out these links:
If houses had airplane modes: an interview with Joseph Grima of Space Caviar
Goodbye to public anonymity? This new Russian face-recognition app may spell its end
Welcome to the Hudson Yards, c. 2019: the world's most ambitious "smart city" experiment
NYPD admits to using "Stringrays," military tech that sweeps up cell data
The theme for June is Privacy. How has architecture transformed notions of privacy? How have privacy concerns transformed architecture? Submit to our open call by Sunday, June 19!
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