A threat analyst from a New Zealand-based anti-malware company, Emsisoft, has provided information that indicates the “network disruption” the Hernando County government is currently experiencing is a ransomware attack.
Brett Callow, Emsisoft threat analyst, released a screenshot on X showing that the ransomware group Rhysida has made Hernando County’s data available for purchase for 40 BitCoin or $2.8 million.
Callow states that at least 20 local governments nationwide have been impacted by ransomware this year.
According to Emsisoft’s annual statistics for local government ransomware attacks in the US:
2023: 95
2022: 106
2021: 77
Totals including hospital systems, K-12 school districts, post-secondary schools, and governments:
2023: 321
2022: 220
2021: 191
For further information on what this means:
Tech Talk: If the County’s IT Outage is a Ransomware Attack
