The Jefferson Police Department is reminding people to be cautious when opening email attachments after a resident reported a ransomware incident. Yesterday (Monday) afternoon, a Jefferson man received an email and his computer became unresponsive. He was later contacted by the attacker, who demanded $8,420 in gift cards to unlock the PC. The man did not send the requested payments and was instructed by law enforcement to contact his bank to monitor for any fraudulent activity. According to Tessian, an email security provider, 96 percent of computer attacks occur over email, and 75% of organizations around the world experienced some sort of attack in 2020. Due to the nature of these crimes, it is nearly impossible for law enforcement to recover any lost funds.
