Credit: whiteMocca/Shutterstock.com To Pay or Not to Pay? Key Factors to Consider When Ransomware Strikes
While strong and up-to-date security is usually effective to stop most technical attacks, even the best security in the world can be defeated by attacking the more fallible human vulnerabilities.
May 02, 2023 at 10:39 AM
8 minute read
Analysis
On Dec, 8, 2022, a ransomware attack on the Metropolitan Opera in New York City crippled the company's computer systems enterprise-wide, including its website, box office and call center. As is typical with ransomware attacks, there was no warning and the timing during the key holiday season of performances was awful for the company. With employees and customers generally in the dark, the company was urgently faced with a very troublesome and dramatic question: should they resist the hacker's demands and go forward as best they could in the face of significant and uncertain technical and public relations challenges, or should they quickly capitulate and pay the hackers to release the systems … hopefully? The potential consequences for the Met from the incident were not small. And after weeks of frantic recovery efforts to restore crippled systems, the company was still selling seats at a hugely discounted $50, and still without full email function as late as Dec. 27.
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