DENVER | Officials claim no ransom was paid and no information was lost during a cyber extortion attack on the Colorado Department of Transportation’s computer network that occurred last spring.
Brandi Simmons, spokeswoman with the Colorado Governor’s Office of Information Technology, said Wednesday that that agency, the FBI and others contained and eradicated the so-called “ransomware” attack that essentially froze hundreds of CDOT computers.
The then-anonymous hackers demanded a ransom to “unlock” those computers.
Simmons says backup systems ensured no CDOT data was lost. She declined to reveal the ransom demand but said nothing was paid.
The U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday that two Iranian computer hackers were charged in connection with the extortion scheme, which targeted government agencies, cities and businesses across the country.