WSJ: Public Sector Increasingly Targeted by Cyber Hackers

Cyber hackers hitting victims with malware are proliferating today's society – seeking cryptocurrency as ransom – and are now targeting municipalities in addition to the private sector, as The Wall Street Journal reported.

"We're right at the front end of this," A Public Risk Management Association executive director Marshall Davies. "[Hackers are] just now coming after the public entities. They've been hitting the businesses for years."

The public sector's attacks are on the rise, according to the report. Sampling 300-400 public-sector entities each year, the Ponemon Institute estimates 38 percent of them will be hit with a ransomware attack this year, which is up from 31 percent in 2017 and 13 percent in 2016, the Journal reported.

Paying the ransom is not advised by the FBI, which warns "some individuals or organizations are never provided with decryption keys after paying a ransom," according to Journal.

Cybersecurity is an expensive proposition, too, particularly for smaller, local governments which do not have the budget to afford information technology talent that demands six-figure salaries, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In Atlanta, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms had purchased cyber security insurance right before an attack that might have cost $20 million, according to the report.

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