HOULTON, Maine — Computers in the town’s Police Department were infected with a virus last week that essentially shut down access to all documents and programs.
Houlton Police Chief Joe McKenna confirmed Monday afternoon that his department was one of a handful in the state to be affected by a virus commonly referred to as “ransomware.” The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and the Boothbay Harbor, Damariscotta, Wiscasset and Waldoboro police departments also were victims.
The virus, which typically enters a computer’s system through an email attachment, encrypts computer files until a ransom is paid. Once paid, the extortioners provide a decryption code that allows files to be accessed again. The ransom typically goes up exponentially if it is not paid within a required timeframe. The fee also is based on how much data is seized.
In Houlton’s case, the ransom wound up being about $588. It was paid in bitcoins, a form of online currency that is difficult to trace. However, when factoring in the costs of tech support to research the problem, McKenna said the actual out-of-pocket cost to the town was about $1,400.
McKenna said the cyberattack was his fault as he inadvertently opened an email that contained the virus attachment while going through his inbox.
“I have been getting quotes on different pieces of equipment that we are replacing,” McKenna said. “Amongst all those emails was an email with a lady’s name, stating ‘your quote is attached.’ I didn’t think anything about it, so I opened it up.”
McKenna said the attachment was an empty document, so he closed it, figuring the individual must have made a mistake when emailing, and shut off his computer.
That empty attachment was actually a computer virus, which activated once the computer was restarted.
“It locked up all of our computers,” McKenna said. “Everything from emails, to all of our photos and word documents and reports.”
The attack was contained to the Houlton Police Department, as the town’s other computer systems were not affected. McKenna said he first contacted a local computer specialist, who informed him that there was no way to remove the virus.
“I then called our local Homeland Security local office,” McKenna said. “Their computer guy looked at our computers and said, ‘You’re screwed.’”
A third individual from Madawaska also was consulted, and he gave the chief the same response: The only way to get the documents back was to pay the ransom.
“There was 10 years’ worth of critical documents that were locked up,” he said. “We could get limited data, but anything involving shared work was locked up. It pretty much put the department at a standstill.”
McKenna added the department was going to be working with its Internet provider to come up with better protocols to prevent future attacks.