ransomware attack costs Brooks County Justice of the Peace and district courts $37,000

The hacker demanded Brooks County pay them $93,000, but county commissioners negotiated with the hacker and eventually agreed to pay less than half that amount. CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A recent ransomware attack on Brooks County’s Justice of the Peace and district courts, and finance department, cost it more than $37,000. He said he isn’t too happy about the county commissioners’ decision to pay the hacker. "It’s scary — of course it is — for everybody.” Brooks County Judge Eric Ramos said the attack took place after an employee opened an email containing a link that allowed someone to hack their system. Ramos said this is the type of software the county purchased after the attack, to protect the county’s server. “The only data that we had that wasn’t backed up was in our auditor's office, where we have our financial software,” Ramos said. And you can’t just be taking it out of the taxpayers' money and paying it off to somebody else,” he said. “I’m very unhappy because of that," said resident Mario Villarreal. (). Continue reading.