San Francisco's public transit is currently functioning normally again after hackers launched a ransomware attack Friday on the public transit system. Following the cyber-breach, payment systems were down across the city, telling commuters they were "out of order," according to the San Francisco Examiner. After the hacker seized control of the payment system on Friday, they demanded 100 Bitcoins, which comes out to about $73,000.
The Examiner reported that Muni, the public transit system, says no customer data was compromised in the hack, but the hacker wants 73,000 big ones for agency data that was collected with the malware.
Security journalist Brian Krebs wrote that the Muni hacker was also hacked over the weekend, revealing other agencies he has hit and held for ransom. Another hacker made their way into the transit system hacker's email account, discovering that this same hacker had recently extorted a U.S.-based manufacturing firm for around $45,000 on November 20. Krebs reports that a modest estimation of the hacker's income from using malware this year is around 140,000 Bitcoins, which comes out to about $102,641,000.
When contacted by the Examiner using the email the hacker used to communicate about ransom, the responding party called themselves "Andy Saolis," and claimed responsibility for the hack. But the hacker has not yet been identified by authorities.
