http://hoodline.com/2016/11/hackers-hold-sfmta-s-computer-network-hostage-for-73k-ransom
Muni passengers were treated to free rides for much of the
weekend after a cyber attack on Muni's computer network Friday
afternoon left ticketing kiosks inoperable. But the San Francisco
Municipal Transit Agency looks poised to lose more than a weekend
of fares, Hoodline has learned.
According to the pseudonymous hacker, the agency's computers are
being held ransom for more than $73,000 dollars with only one day
left to pay—and nearly 25 percent of Muni's network has been
compromised.
The severity of the attack still remains unknown to the public.
However, documents released by one of the hackers suggest many
vital agency functions have been compromised, including payroll,
email servers, Quickbooks, NextBus operations, various MySQL
database servers, staff training and personal computers for
hundreds of employees.
In all, the hackers claim to control 2,112 of SFMTA's 8,656
computer network.
In a statement released by agency spokesperson Paul Rose, “The
incident remains under investigation, so it wouldn't be
appropriate to provide any additional details at this point.”
The attack, first reported by the Examiner on Saturday (link),
left kiosks across Muni's downtown stations with a message
reading, “You Hacked, ALL Data Encrypted. Contact For
Key(cryptom27@yandex.com)ID:681 ,Enter.”
Unable to process fares, Muni left turnstiles open for passengers
to ride freely.Muni's computers have been hijacked using the
HDDCryptor ransomware, which targets Windows machines. Also known
as Mamba, the ransomware encrypts hard drives and requires a
password to unlock, leaving Muni without access.
Reached at the provided email, the hackers, calling themselves
“Andy Saolis,” demanded 100 Bitcoin—the equivalent of more than
$73,000—from San Francisco's transit agency:
if You are Responsible in MUNI-RAILWAY !
All Your Computer’s/Server's in MUNI-RAILWAY Domain Encrypted By
AES 2048Bit!
We have 2000 Decryption Key !
Send 100BTC to My Bitcoin Wallet , then We Send you Decryption key
For Your All Server's HDD!!
We Only Accept Bitcoin , it’s So easy!
you can use Brokers to exchange your money to BTC ASAP
it's Fast way!
The hackers followed up, writing, “say to company owner we are
waiting one more day for deal and after it this email closing for
security reason!” In another email, they declared, “we only
encrypt 2000 important server and PC , another systems don't point
to us !”
Andy Saolis—a pseudonym commonly used in HDDCryptor ransom
attacks—also provided a list of all 2,112 machines under their
control, as well as a Bitcoin wallet to which the ransom could be
paid. So far, no transfer have been posted to that wallet, but it
is likely the hackers provided different wallets to each email
contact to avoid being easily tracked.
SFMTA's backup servers did not appear to be among the thousands of
impacted machines, which could allow the agency to avoid paying
the ransom and restore their computers from previous copies of
their system data. However, depending on how old the backups are,
they still could risk losing critical information.