Government and organizations' websites across St. Clair County have been shut down for an entire week after a massive ransomware attack perpetrated by a hacker group called “Grief.”
Some of the targeted websites are gradually getting back online after the cyberattack that largely disrupted vital operations in local courts, hospitals, and jails.
“We run through hundreds of incidents a week and constantly are running calls in related to incident response and unfortunately, a large majority of those are city and local governments,” Spear Tip Cyber Counterintelligence spokesman said.
Residents have been impacted by the recent hack that lasted for days delaying some prisoners’ release.
“He’s been in this bonding area with the same clothes on and all that since Sunday,” a woman said of a relative waiting to be released from the county jail.
“We have the money to bond him out and they say since the system is down, we can’t do anything. Can’t bond him out, can’t do anything.”
Yesterday, Cox Media Group websites have been hacked halting television and radio streams in 20 media markets around the country.
“They go after the targets who make the most money, so if they find a business, businesses are always going to be able to have more money available than the average person,” Webster University Scott Granneman explained.
