In recent years, there have been a massive number of hacks and cyberattacks affecting sensitive personal data stored online. Most of these operate as mass data breaches, where attackers exfiltrate sensitive customer data so that it can be sold and used to engage in fraud. At the same time, we have seen the growth of ransomware attacks which produce functional damage to data, and loss of services. In this paper, you are being asked to conduct research on the ransomware attack against the Lansing Board of Water and Light (BWL). Find as much media reporting as you can on the incident and answer the following questions:
1) How did the infection occur? To the extent that you can find specifics, try to detail the likely path that led the malware payload to be executed.
2) What did the ransomware do to BWL systems and personal data? Be as specific as you can in terms of the harms to the organization and to customers.
3) What did BWL do to make individual victims whole, and how did BWL resolve the attack internally? Were the attackers paid, were they able to mitigate the infection without paying? What was the total cost?
4) What does this incident tell us about the real threat of data breaches and economically motivated cybercrime?
5) Based on what you can find about the incident in total, does this attack likely stem from nation-state sponsored attackers or financially motivated criminals? Explain your rationale using information from both the reporting you found and your readings/materials for the semester.
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