The City Council in Riviera Beach, Florida, has ordered its insurance carrier to pay nearly $592,000 to hackers in order to end a recent ransomware attack, The New York Times reports. The cyberattack occurred May 29 when an opened email attachment forced the city's system to shut down. In addition to paying the ransom, which comes with no guarantees of system restoration, Riviera Beach officials invested $900,000 for new computer hardware to alleviate concerns of further hacking. “We are well on our way to restoring the city system,” City Spokeswoman Rose Anne Brown said, adding that city officials are working with law enforcement and security consultants to address the situation. Also in Florida, ZDNet reports an ad agency is dealing with an open database that exposed details of medical malpractice cases and other sensitive details about injuries sustained by U.S. military veterans. (Registration may be required to access this story.)
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