Lansing Utility Paid $25,000 Ransom after Cyberattack

The Lansing Board of Water and Light was forced to pay a $25,000 ransom due to a cyber-attack that held the company’s main controls hostage. The attack originated when an employee unknowingly opened an email which contained the ransomware. While the Michigan-based company estimated a total of $2.4 million dollars in both damages to internal operations from the attack and upgrades to prevent future cyber breaches, all but $500,000 of that sum was covered by insurance. In response, the BWL Board of Commissioners’ Committee agreed unanimously to implement a new information technology communication policy, which hadn’t been updated since 2007.