Bucharest’s District 5 City Hall hit by ransomware attack

The District 5 City Hall of Bucharest announced on October 26 that it was the target of a cyber attack that hit its servers. The hackers demanded USD 5 million in ransom, but mayor Cristian Popescu Piedone said he would not pay.

"This morning (e.n. October 26), the District 5 City Hall employees reported that the institution's telephone switchboard was not working. The maintenance company was contacted to fix the problem and found that the District 5 City Hall servers were cyberattacked. A message from the attackers also appears on the servers' screen, demanding USD 5 million in ransom," the City Hall said.

Only the District 5 City Hall headquarters were attacked, without affecting departments operating in other offices. Its representatives contacted the Ministry of Research, Innovation, and Digitization, as well as the officials of the National Cyber ​​Security Directorate, to follow all the steps necessary to remedy this situation.

"I will not give in to such attacks, and I will not pay the amount demanded by cyber terrorists," District 5 mayor Cristian Popescu Piedone said.

He also stated that in the coming period, once this situation is fixed, the City Hall will implement new cyber security measures "to make sure that such situations will not happen again."

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