Who: Boston Public Defenders Office

Date: 15 March 2019

# of Records: Unknown

What Happened: Boston public defenders Office suffered a ransomware attack

How it Happened: Private attorneys tapped to work for indigent clients receive a small fee from the government. This ransomware attack interrupted those payments and locked up the organization’s essential digital services, including e-mail.

Outcome: The office chose not to send the bitcoin demanded by the attacker. All systems have been taken offline in order to cleanse them of viruses. Instead, will be using back-ups to restore services. Now two weeks have passed, and the entire justice system in Boston is feeling the effects. The agency cannot say how much longer it will be until they’re back online. In the meantime, people who work there have no e-mail, and the website is mostly non-functioning.