The attack on Rockport is one example in a rising tide of similar invasions of municipal systems across the U.S.—from major cities like Atlanta, which got hit in March, to counties, tiny towns and even a library system in St. Louis. Local governments are forced to spend money on frantic efforts to recover data, system upgrades, cybersecurity insurance and, in some cases, to pay their online extortionists if they can’t restore files some other way.
Hackers are targeting small towns’ computer systems, with public-sector attacks appearing to be rising faster than those in the private sector. Online extortionists demand bitcoin ransom in return for decryption keys.
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