Reminder: Protect Your Interrogation Recordings

One Texas police department lost eight years of video evidence after the department's server was compromised with ransomware.   According to the police department chief all bodycam video, some photos, some in-car video and some police department surveillance video were lost. 

​Immediately, the police blamed Russian hackers, but Barlag later told WFAA that experts told him it “more likely originated in Ukraine.” The official press release, however, states, “It is unknown for certain where the virus originated from.”

The ransomware attack occurred in December, according to a press release issued last week. The malware “had been introduced onto the network from a spam email that had come from a cloned email address imitating a department-issued email address.”
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The server and all computers were “immediately disconnected” from the internet and Cockrell Hill contacted the FBI Cybercrimes unit. The ransom demand was nearly $4,000 and the feds said paying was no guarantee the decryption key would be provided. So, the police decided not to pay and to instead wipe the server.

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