<ul>
 	<li>The attack affected online services, including email and emergency calls.</li>
 	<li>The FBI said it disagreed with the payment of rescue after a ransomware attack.</li>
</ul>
The city council of Florida's Riviera Beach city agreed to pay a ransom of USD 600,000 in bitcoins to hackers after they were kidnapped from their computer system three weeks ago. The payment was made in exchange for recovering the disabled data.

The municipality of Riviera Beach, in the state of Florida in the U.S., considered that it had no choice but to use the city's insurance to pay 65 bitcoins (USD 600,000), if they wanted access to the documents that the hackers encrypted, causing problems in their online services, the loss of their email system and the interruption of the 911 emergency telephone system.

According to The Palm Beach Post, the attack began on May 29, when a police department employee opened an email attachment that activated ransomware, a computer virus that encrypts data and demands a rescue for it.

According to the media, there is no guarantee that hackers will fulfill their part of the deal after they get the money.

The FBI published on its Web site that it does not allow the payment of a ransom in response to a ransomware attack.

<em>Paying a ransom does not guarantee an organization that will recover its data: there have been cases where organizations never obtained a decryption key after paying the ransom. Paying a ransom not only encourages today's cybercriminals to turn to more organizations, but also provides an incentive for other criminals to engage in this type of illegal activity.</em>

<em>FBI.</em>

The city of Florida also voted to spend nearly a million dollars on new computers and other equipment to strengthen its system.

The attack on the Riviera Beach City Council is the latest in a series of similar events that have affected other U.S. cities.

Security experts from the federal government and the private sector warn that much of the U.S. public infrastructure is dangerously exposed to cyber attacks, and believe many institutions are slow to respond to these events, according to Business Insider.

Cyber-security firm Recorded Future found that at least 170 government systems in any county, city or state in the U.S. have been attacked by hackers since 2013, including at least 45 police and sheriff's offices.

So far this year, there have been more than 20 cyber attacks on the public sector, not counting those that are often not reported until months or years later.

Baltimore is among cities that have recently suffered cyber attacks since early May. On June 12, local media reported that 30% of the city's employees still did not have access to email, and many services would not return to full functionality for months. Hackers had demanded that Baltimore government authorities pay a ransom of US$76,000, but the city refused.

Albany in New York, San Diego in California, Sarasota in Florida and a Los Angeles hospital also faced similar attacks.

City of Florida paid 65 bitcoins to hackers who hacked their system

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City of Florida paid 65 bitcoins to hackers who hacked their system

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