The Baltimore City Council’s budget committee voted Thursday in support of spending $10 million to cover costs associated with rebounding from a recent ransomware infection.
All six members of the Baltimore Budget and Appropriations Committee in attendance during a hearing held at City Hall recommended the full council consider an ordinance authorizing the funds to be allocated to the city’s information technology department specifically to be spent on “ransomware response and recovery.”
Ransomware viruses are intended to make infected computers inoperable by holding their data hostage until the perpetrator receives a payment. Recovery is not guaranteed, however, and the FBI advises ransomware victims against paying ransoms.
The second ransomware infection suffered by Baltimore since 2018, the virus that prompted the funding request currently being considered had demanded a ransom worth about $76,000. Baltimore said it refused to pay, resulting in disruptions to several city services, some for months, in addition to costs far beyond the requested ransom.
Baltimore’s budget office previously estimated the infection will cost around $18 million, and the city said last week that it has already spent more than $5 million on related cybersecurity contracts and equipment.
More recently, Baltimore’s Department of Public Works announced this week that the city will resume sending water bills to residents and businesses more than three months after its system was sidelined by the ransomware infection.
More than 4,000 ransomware attacks are waged daily, according to the FBI. A previous infection briefly affected Baltimore’s emergency dispatch system in March 2018.
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