California finance department hit by ransomware

The Finance Department of California has been hit by a ransomware attack. The breach, confirmed on 12 December by the Cybersecurity Integration Center (Cal-CSIC), is one of the latest in a trend of attacks targeting government institutions and critical industries. Within hours, the attack was claimed by Russian-backed ransomware gang LockBit. In a blog post claiming responsibility, LockBit said they had accessed various networks and servers, stealing sensitive personal and legal data totalling 76GB. LockBit initially gave the Finance Department until 24 December to pay a ransom before they will begin to leak data.