Ransomware Hits New Mexico County

In January, Bernalillo County, New Mexico’s largest county, suffered a ransomware attack. The attack impacted the 675,000 residents in the county, including those living in Albuquerque, New Mexico’s most populous city.

“But the one thing that was really interesting to me, and again it goes to the theme of cyberattacks affecting physical, is they also got into the government-run facilities for the jail and basically the camera feed, so the security cameras … used to monitor the inmates were offline for a period of time,” Nachreiner said. “More importantly, they couldn’t actually open all the doors because they’re networked. So apparently the inmates were stuck in cells for a period of time. But the opposite could be even worse if you start disabling all the security systems and opening doors of jails.”