Hackers hack Johannesburg information systems and demand ransom in BTC

Hackers hacked the website of Johannesburg, the largest city in the Republic of South Africa and the capital of the province.Gauteng, and demanded from the authorities a ransom in bitcoins.

The city administration announced the hack in itsofficial Twitter account. Authorities wrote that a “network intrusion was discovered that resulted in unauthorized access to information systems.”

Hacking affected several client systems, includingincluding reference services. Due to the intervention of hackers, some operations to provide public services to the public were suspended. Johannesburg city cybersecurity experts launched an investigation into the incident.

After the attack, cybercriminals calling themselvesShadow Kill Hackers demanded a ransom of 4 BTC, as reported by local publication eNCA. Otherwise, the hackers threatened to upload all compromised data to the Internet by October 28:

"If you pay on time, we will destroy all the data we have and send your IT specialist a full report on how we hacked your systems and reveal the weaknesses in the security system."

This is not the first time that hackers have hackedinformation systems of large cities, since their level of security is often far from ideal. Earlier this month, online operations in the Spanish city of Jerez de la Frontera were suspended following an attack by hackers who demanded a ransom in Bitcoin to unlock the city's computer systems.

In June, the authorities of the American cityLake City paid a ransom of 42 BTC to extortionists, and a little earlier, the city of Riviera Beach paid a ransom of 65 BTC to unknown hackers who managed to take control of the city's computer system.

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