News Briefs: Florida City Agrees to Pay Hackers $600,000 in Ransom

The Riviera Beach (Florida) City Council has agreed to pay $600,000 in ransom after hackers used a virus to take down the city’s email, phones and water pump stations. The virus came in the form of an email attachment that was downloaded by a city employee. Hackers demanded 65 Bitcoin — a hard-to-trace digital currency — valued at around $600,000. As a result of the hack, even utility payments had to be accepted in person or through the U.S. Postal Service. “Anything that was done online, we did not have access to,” Rose Anne Brown, a city spokesperson, tells The