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HACKER

Hacker shuts down Spanish city’s computer sytem and demands bitcoin ransom

A hacker has taken over the computer system of the southern Spanish city of Jerez de la Frontera and is demanding a ransom paid in bitcoin to unlock it, local officials said Friday.

Published: 4 October 2019 17:54 CEST
Hacker shuts down Spanish city's computer sytem and demands bitcoin ransom
Photo: billiondigital/Depositphotos

 

The cyber attack, which has caused outages of services offered through the city's website, began on Tuesday night, a municipal spokesman told AFP.   

The hacker behind the attack is demanding a payment in bitcoin to restore the computer system, he added, without saying how much is being asked for.   

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have long been a favourite ransom tender for cyber criminals thanks to the currencies' anonymous nature.   

Spain's interior ministry has sent three computer experts to Jerez de la Frontera, a city of some 212,000 residents which is the home of sherry, to help the municipality resolve the cyber attack, the city's authorities said in
a statement.

Its Socialist mayor, Mamem Sanchez, said the municipal website would only be back up and running when it is “100 percent secure”.   

While law enforcement and security experts say it is unwise to pay hackers, many organisations end up accepting ransom demands which often cost less than rebuilding computer systems.

READ ALSO: Cava, queso, olive oil and mariscos: Trump slaps extra tariffs on Spanish produce 

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HACKING

Suspected hackers show porn on Swedish station billboard

Commuters in a southeast Swedish city were briefly roused from their wintry routines by a public display of pornography at a bus stop outside the central rail station, officials said on Friday.

Published: 17 January 2020 16:11 CET
Suspected hackers show porn on Swedish station billboard
The screens at Kalmar station began suddenly showing porn images. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
For about 15 minutes on Thursday afternoon, during maintenance of an interactive display in the city of Kalmar, the usual adverts and videos were replaced by explicit images from a pornography website.
   
“We got information from a bus driver that someone had put pornographic imagery on one of our displays,” Karl-Johan Bodell, traffic director at Kalmar's regional public transport company KLT, told AFP.
   
The screen at Kalmar's central station in Sweden's southeast was quickly switched off — and will remain off until the cause is uncovered.
   
Local media reported that hackers were to blame and Bodell conceded that hacking was “the first thing that comes to mind”, but stressed that the cause had not yet been confirmed. 
   
KLT said the company supplying the display was conducting an investigation into what had caused the switch and how they might prevent future incidents.
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