Hackers Hit Los Angeles Suburb, Demand 100 Bitcoin Ransom

Ransomware operatives have hacked the City of Torrance in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and are holding city systems ransom. The hacking group is threatening to leak file archives allegedly stolen from the city during the ransomware attack.

While Torrance officials are reluctant to comment, reports are coming out suggesting that the suburb was indeed the victim of a hack in March. The DoppelPaymer hacking group that claimed responsibility for the attack is using its “Dopple Leaks” site to publish samples of the stolen data, which reportedly includes city budget financials, accounting documents, an archive of documents belonging to the City Manager, and more.

According to BleepingComputer, the hackers demand a ransom of 100 Bitcoin, or roughly $700,000, to keep the data private and hand the city the decryption keys to unfreeze their malware-tainted systems. The gang reportedly got its hands on no less than 200GB of sensitive city data.

Contacted by several news outlets for comment, city officials remained quiet. However, it is perhaps no coincidence that several reports came out in March regarding a cyberattack on the City of Torrance. If DoppelPaymer”s claims are to be believed, this is the incident in question.