MAY 2021 Blues Vol 37 No. 5 Houston Cover

DC Police Hit by Russian

DC Police Hit by Russian Ransomware Attack WASHINGTON, DC– The Washington, D.C. police department said last month that its computer network was breached, and a Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate claimed to have stolen sensitive data, including information on informants, that it threatened to share with local criminal gangs unless police paid an unspecified ransom. The cybercriminals posted screenshots on their dark web site supporting their claim to have stolen more than 250 gigabytes of data, Fox News reports. The District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement that it had asked the FBI to investigate the “unauthorized access.” There was no indication that any police operations were affected, and the department did not immediately say whether it had been hit by ransomware. The Babuk group, a relatively new ransomware gang, said on its website that it had “downloaded a sufficient amount of Washington DC Police admitted to having suffered a ransomware attack. The Metropolitan Police Department confirmed this attack after the attackers – the Buk Locker gang – disclosed their activity. For now, the ransomware gang has threatened the DC Police to leak the data they stole through this attack. Around the same time, the attackers have made an interesting disclosure of their soon expected departure. information from your internal networks” and gave the police three days to contact it or “we will start to contact gangs in order to drain the informants.” Screenshots it posted suggested it has data from at least four computers, including intelligence reports, information on gang conflicts, the jail census and other administrative files. One of the images, apparently of network locations accessed by the criminals, showed a text document on one computer titled “How to Restore Your Files.” get your FREE SUBSCRIPTION to The BLUES, scan the QR code or click here. 26 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 27