A Maryland police department says it experienced its "worst computer network attack" in its history, after the attacker accessed its network through a longtime software vendor.
Salisbury police Capt. Rich Kaiser tells The Daily Times of Salisbury that the department's entire internal computer network was compromised Jan. 9 in a ransomware attack. He said negotiations with the attacker who asked for an undisclosed sum "quickly disintegrated."
Some data remains inaccessible two weeks later, although the department expects to be fully operable at the end of this week.
Kaiser says a backup system prevented data from being lost, and there's no evidence that anything was stolen or downloaded.
He says the department's ability to respond to calls wasn't hampered, with personnel shifting to a paper system.
Police are working with the FBI.
