Ransomware Costs City of Quincy, Illinois, $650,000

In response, the city council passed a resolution authorizing emergency payment of more than $145,000 for cybersecurity consulting services and an unspecified amount, which is less than $500,000 for paying the ransom. “The entire package which includes the fees of the three cybersecurity consulting firms and the payment towards getting a specific decryption key is $650,000,” Troup stated in the press conference. The ransomware attack affected the administrative office emails and phones, the communication systems of the police and fire departments along with the Quincy Public Library as the library services are hosted on the City Hall servers, Troup says. Troup says that it doesn’t appear that any data was exfiltrated. He says: “It’s remarkable how we are still able to function our critical services with the city like water, recycling, thrash [sewage plants], police and fire departments, through the entire [cyber incident] situation.”