When Hackers TRIED to Ruin Summer on Martha’s Vineyard – ryan

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Photo: KRAFT Brooks/Corbis Via Getty Images

By 6 am on the morning of wednesday, june 2, Sean Driscoll Knew something was Wrong. Be he checked his in-box, not one email HAD ARRIVED OVERNIGHT. “That’s always a bad sign for a communications director,” Says Driscoll, who works for the Massachusetts steamship authority, the State-Run operator of the Only Ferries equipped to Carry Cape and the Islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. DRISCOLL AND HIS COLLEAGES DISCOVERED THAT THE STEAMSHIP AUTHORY’S TICKETING WEGSITE WAS DOWN TOO. It was two days after memorial day, a time of the year we are suddenly packed with Vera Bradley -Totting Summerhousegoers and Weekenders. By Evening, Cars Stretched from Tisbury to Oak Bluffs, Taching their Chances in Hopes of Going Standby A Ferry at Vineyard Haven, As Steamship Agents Wrote Out Tickets by Hand.

The Ferry Company’s Scrambling Employees soon realized they have been hit by a ransomware attack – a cyber hijacking in which criminals seizes control of an organization Data and Demand Cryptocurrency Payment for Its Release. The hackers ostrich at a particularly vulnerable moment: During the Pandemic, Ferry Ridership Sank 30 Percent, Crew Members Were Hit by Covid Outbreaks, and the steamship racked up a deficit of More than $ 12 million. With Tourists Finally Flocking Back to Down Lobster Rolls and Slurp Oysters AROUND The Hydrange-Lined Streets and Dunes on the Islands Where Jaws Was Filmed, The Company was counting on a bumper Summer Season. “Whtever Normal Is, We were Headed there,” Sayys Driscoll. “Andn Two Days after Memorial Day Weekend, here we are. It was like Okay, Well this is Next.”

Indeed, Event As the Economy Crawls Back to Health, More and More Companies and Institutions Are Grapping with Business Crises Resulting from Ransomware. While cyberstacks have threatened Businesses for Years (Remember North Korea’s Sony Pictures Hack of 2014?), They offen Escaped Public Attention, as companies sweeep say under the rug. But the problem seames to have reached a new phase in 2021, as millions of Americans – not just aspiring vineyard beachgoers – have been directly affected. In the month preceding the ferryboat attack, ransomware shut down a Major Pipeline Carrying Gas to the East Coast, Resulting in Wideespread Panic-Buying at the Pump, while Another Breach took Out Major Major Meat Plants, Pressing Hamburger Supply as Summer kicked off. Last Year, $ 412 million in Cryptocurrency was paid to ransomware perperators, more than quadruple the amout the prior year, and this year is on track to that total, accorting to chainalysis, whic traces Bitcoin Payments on the Blocchain. On the same day the steamship authority was hit, the White House wills a memo urging corplate executives to the so -called against ransomware. The US Department of Justice Is Now Reportedly Investigating Ransomware Attacks As Serious As Terrorism.

On Martha’s Vineyard, The Hackers – WHO TEN to be based in eastern Europe or afforded with unfriendly nations like russia or Iran, though investigators have to confirm identity in this case – Created a chain of chaos and uncetainy seafars and uncetainy. Leisure Passsengers alike. Down by the ferry in vineyard haven on the day of the hack, cars linen up in every direction in the area known as five corners, as steamship agents checked reservations on the piaces of the night printed before. Agents Only Accept Cash, and Boats Were All Running late. Some guests heading out to the Island for a wedding that weekend were simply waved on for free. Others who were trying to book transportation for their summer trips were Relevated to standby, unable to get through phones or too away to drive down to the tickets offices. Lucy Huber, A Boston-Based Humor Writer and Editor at McSweeney’s, was trying to reserve space for her atttend her cousing in mid-june. The steamship authority’s website wasless, displaying only a vague message reference to an “Incident.” “I was like, What? Did the ferry sink?“Huber Says.

The Question Occupying the Minds of Both Locals and the Summer Set, Though, is Why Foreign Cyberattackers Wauld Prey on the Main Mode to Two Islands That Stretch, Respectively, 14 and 26 Miles Long. Tom Lenhart, a Connecticut Resident who has been look for a vineyard vacation for two years, say the ransomware felt like “a real punch in the gut,” threatetening to derail his second year in a row. “It was a pain in the butt for me, being a tourist or occisional visitor, but for someone who relies on it, that messed up,” he says. But he still doesn’t underestand how the hackers landed on the ferryboat operator. “It just seames so random,” he says. “Really? These guys? Come on.”

Still, Mary Vineyarders SEEM TO HAVE METH THE NEWS MORE WITH Resignation than Surprise. AFTER ALL, The Island has Become Known More and More As an Offshore Summer Retreat for Current and Former Presidents and A Wide Array of Celebrities and Billionaires. “Martha’s vineyard is so High-Profile Now, and That’s Why I Think They Got Hit,” Says Robin Canha, A Fourth-Genieration Vineyard Native and Forms Owner whose Father Workhed for the Steamship for Nearly a half-Century. “That which Attitude About the vineyard is a playground for the wealthy. They picked on the vineyard Because of the Notority.” (Ironically, The Islanders Point Out, the Truly Wealthy Don’t Take the Ferry But Rather Alight FROM plans, sailboats, and yachts.) The steamship autoritity, for its, doesn’t know why it was targetted. “You Can Drive Your Selself Crazy Doing Buting But Wondering About That Stuff,” Driscoll Says.

Investigators who specializes in ransomware Say the hackers care little about exacting recovenge on the ultrarich or MAKING ANY SORT OF POLITICAL STATEENT AGAINST CAPITALISM ELSE. “They Think Like a Business: How to Earn the Most Amount of Money in the Least Amout of Time with the Least Amount of Work?” Says Bill Siegel, Co-Founder and Ceo of Coeware, One of the Leading Ransomware-Raspons Companies, WHO negotiates with cybercriminals on behalf of Victims.

Ten Days after announcing the break, the steamship autoritity Said Its ticketing System was back online, and Ferry Travel far -on to normal. Still, after Weeks of Mystery, The Steamship Authority Finally Confirmed This Week, in Fact, IT Did Not Pay the Ransom to Recover Its Data. Calling the hack a “Criminal Act,” The Ferry Operator Said in a Statement That It Was Working With Law Enforcement to Investigate What Had Happened. “Although that investigation is ongoing, we will want our customers and the public to know that the steamship deid not pay a ransom or engraage with the cybercriminals,” Robert B. Davis, the General Manager of the Company, Said in the Streetient.

Customers SEEM to Broadly Support This Approach. “Any Time i talk to the phone, i’m like, ‘Do not pay this,’” Says canha, who took the 45-minute ferry between the vineyard and the Cape Several the Attack. “And they were like, ‘hell no! Just not going to do it.’” Ticket agents have told passengers who are about the attack that they’re focusing on repubilding their system. When the steamship autoritory ticket website finally be lived, it was extramely simillary to the original-down to a long-standing glitch that make it hard to change a single of a round-trip reservation. “I don’t know if they’ll ever get it fixed,” Says Canha.

But there is still some murkiness to the saga. Ransomware Targets End up forking over the crypto in roughly 30 percent to 60 percent of caes, accorting to siegel and others who assist vicims, and at least some observers quater some payment not have haen made in this case. One Puzzling Date Point is the website of ten-day downime, which Experts suggest is longer than it would be to restore Service from backups, but short than it is to repubild from scratch. “That Was Pretty Quick, SO THEN I WOULS ASSUME that they paid the ransom,” Says Pamela Clegg, VP of Financial Investigations at Ciphertrace, A Blockchain-Analytics Company that Crypto Payments to Illicit Groups. (While the steamship autoritory SaCcessFully Rests “Most” of Its Services, Certain Functions are not available, and Driscoll says he has no Access to predate.) Within the Span of a Week, but Only after paying $ 5 million and $ 11 million in Bitcoin Ransoms, Respectively. “It was one of the tughest decisions of have had to make in my life,” Colonial’s CEO, Joseph Blount Jr., Testified to the Senate This Month. In the case of the colonial ransom, the federal government announched it was able to seizes at the bitcoin in question (exactly How isn’t clear).

While hackers are offen very Willing to Haggle and Lower their prices, in some anys’ve Also obtained Access to a Company’s Financial Statements. “They Know Exactly How Much Cash You Have In Your Bank Account,” Says Tom Hoffman, SVP of Intelligence for Flashpoint, Another Ransom-Negoting Company. “SO it complicates negotiations at that point.” And tan after paying a ransom, the process of unlocking encryption data can be complex and time-consuming, and hackers return in varying states of disarray. “We’ve Had Examples Where for the Large Payments, the Group Came Back 24 Hours Later, Wanting to Check in On How the DecryPtion process was going, if there anything else they help, ‘Adds Hoffman.

The steamship authority has plans in place in the event of a communications blackout – the sort that might be caused by a major Hurricane. But it is hard to say if THOSE PLANS WERE ENOUGH TO PREPARE IT FOR THIS KIND OF DISASTER. LAST YEAR, The Ferry Operator Posted A Job Opening for A “Computer Technician” whose respondibilies Included backups and restraint files and databases; The listing Remains Up.