Paying Ransom

CF: Have any ransoms been paid related to power grid attacks?

PH: I don’t know of any ransoms in particular to the grid. I know about ransoms in other sectors. And I have talked to clients that have ended up paying against the wishes of the FBI that gets involved because they don’t want to create a market for ransomware. But some of these critical infrastructures, the people who run them are like we have to be back online, so we decided to pay it. In the instances that I’m familiar, with, the bad guys made good on their promise to restore their environments. But there’s no guarantee that will happen.