The first cable-car service was launched in Moscow this Tuesday, and free rides to and from Luzhniki Stadium were promised to the visitors throughout the first month. Naturally, people were eager to ride the cable-car and thronged the location. However, much to their dismay, only after a few days the service got attacked with ransomware.
Reportedly, hackers managed to infect the cable-car system with ransomware due to which the service had to be shut down. The servers of the Moscow Ropeway (MKD), which is the name of the agency that’s been given the task of rebuilding the 720-meter long cable car line, were impacted by the attack.
See: Hackers find life-threatening flaws in Austrian ski-lift control unit
The ransomware attack was carried out on November 28, at around 14:00 local time. Reacting immediately, the MKD stopped all the operations of the service and brought all the 35 8-seater cable cars to a halt. Perhaps that’s why there aren’t any reports about injuries suffered by the visitors. Moreover, according to local news sources, all the cable cars landed safely.
On November 29, the MKD servers were subjected to a security audit in order to remove the infection and now the service as resumed operations.
According to Russian news sites, an MKD spokesperson Nikolai Divakov has claimed that the hackers have been identified by the authorities and a case has been filed as well. However, the hacker(s) haven’t been arrested as yet. Moreover, the authorities have not shared details about the type of ransomware used to infect the servers or the how much Bitcoin ransom did the hackers demand.
A video has also surfaced showing a cop asking people that the cable-car service was unavailable due to technical glitches. The video was uploaded on the state-run newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta’s website.
Previously, the San Francisco Municipal Railway had its entire server compromised by hackers who demanded 100 Bitcoin as ransom. In another incident, hackers infected over 2,000 computers at Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) with SamSam ransomware and demanded 3 Bitcoin as ransom.
“Ransomware is unique among cybercrime because, in order for the attack to be successful, it requires the victim to become a willing accomplice after the fact,” James Scott, Sr. Fellow, Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology.
If you run an online business remember to keep a backup of your data and follow this guide to protect yourself from increasing ransomware attacks.