A Jerusalem chessed organization that assists thousands of families ahead of Yomtov is being held hostage by hackers. The hackers have penetrated the organization’s system, demanding ransom to release the system ahead of Pesach.
The organization has been working without its computers over recent days as the hackers have taken over their system. It is reported the hacker attack originates outside of Israel. Time is running out as the computer system is required to assist the families as the distribution of Pesach items is set to being next week.
It remains to be seen what will occur as the organization’s entire database has been taken over and it does not have a backup.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
Please let us know which organization tis is so that people can take precautions agai9nst their credit card information being misused.
Whos advising them? Just unplug the server and then reset the password and erase malware.
This is a typical ransomware attack. It hits databases (or any vulnerable devices, really) and encrypts them with powerful encryption. Then the hackers hold the data ransom until they get payment. Typically, if there demands arent met, the info will remain encrypted forever or the attackers will begin destroying data.
If they don’t have backups, the best thing to do is pay the ransom because there is really no way to decrypt the data without the correct key. I would hope that the org is working with a cyber sec company (there are tons of them here in Israel!) to advise them of how to proceed but if they need help, the YWN editor can contact me thru my email on file and I’ll help them out.