More U.S. towns falling victims to hackers 

A town in Florida ended up paying  $500,000 to hackers after a ransomware attack on its computer system.

The total paid by Florida municipalities over ransomware in the last two weeks now stands at $1.1m.

Officials in Lake City voted to pay hackers in Bitcoin after suffering downed computer systems for two weeks.

Coastal suburb Riviera Beach recently paid hackers $600,000 following a similar incident that locked municipal staff out of important files.



Workers in Lake City were locked out of email accounts and members of the public were left unable to make municipal payments online.

Ransomware attacks have become an increasingly common tool for cyber-criminals. Municipal staff in one Alaskan community reverted to using typewriters after their computers were hit by ransomware last year.

Attacks have also affected the US cities of Baltimore and Atlanta as well as towns in California, North Carolina and Ohio, among other places.

In 2016, three US hospitals were hit by ransomware infections.

Via CBS News