The city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, fell victim to a ransomware attack that affected 4% of the city’s computers, or 158 workstations. The attackers demanded a bitcoin cryptocurrency payment of $5.3 million for the release of the data decryption keys. The city tried to negotiate for $400,000, but the offer was rejected and negotiations stopped at this as the hackers made no new demand and the city decided to try and recover the data on its own. The infection did not spread to other machines due to Management Information Systems staff’s response.
Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hackers-ask-for-53-million-ransom-turn-down-400k-get-nothing/