Ransomware attacks to municipal, local, and state government agencies are on the rise in the U.S. Places as prominent as Los Angeles County and Atlanta are at the mercy of relentless attackers seeking extortion fees in exchange for mission-critical data. The goal is financial, but still ends up having a huge impact on the operations of the target, potentially harming important services such as police and fire departments. Attackers are demanding higher payments to release the hostage data, and often, they time their attacks to hit at the most sensitive moments.
Source: https://threatpost.com/public-sector-ransomware-attacks-rage/155086/