Ransomware Used to Lock Hotel Guests in Their Room

A group of hackers recently used ransomware to trap a number of hotel guests in their room. Taking control of the central key management system at Romantik Seehotel Jägerwir, the hackers forced guests of the hotel out of their rooms. The discovery that hackers were behind the incident came when several guests of the Alps hotel realized that they could no longer use their card keys to return to their rooms.

The reservation system was also hit by the hackers, in addition to the cash desk system. All of this was done in the name of a $1605 ransom demand, which was to be paid in bitcoin. Left without any options, the hotel had no choice but to pay the ransom.

The hotel reacted quickly in the aftermath. Not only was the system replaced, but some computers were also delinked. This was done to ensure essential services would be able to endure, in the event of an attack in the future.

This story is unfortunately not a singular event. Ransomware attacks continue to be problematic for businesses of all shapes and sizes, and all across the world. A hospital in 2016 had its patient records hijacked, attached to a ransom demand of $17, 000. A university in Canada was recently forced to pay out a ransom of $20, 000 in order to get their hacked network back.

Source: http://www.actionlocksmiths.ca/blog/64-ransomware-used-to-lock-hotel-guests-in-their-room.html