LA Traffic Jam Caused by Ransomware Attack

Last night’s traffic jam on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles was caused by a ransomware attack according to Oscar J Simpson, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Traffic Control – Oscar J Simpson. Simpson confirmed that the Department paid the $100,000 ransom to get traffic flowing again through the intersection of La Cienega Boulevard and Centinela Avenue.

Immanuel C. Securitage, spokesman for ECS-CERT explained to reporters this morning that this was an unusual ransomware attack. “Normally attackers infiltrate the victim’s computer system and encrypt the files on the device and demand payment to unlock the files. That is not what happened in this instance.” he explained.

The infected systems were the automotive control systems in about twenty automobiles transiting the intersection. Using a new ransomware system called WannaDrive, the attackers had previously infected the HomeTrack GPS Software on the vehicles. When these twenty vehicles were at the intersection the attackers turned off their vehicle ignitions, stalling the vehicles. Confusion ensued. The attackers then contacted LADTC to demand the payment to turn the vehicles back on.

Dade Murphy from Dragonfire, a control system security company, told reporters that until last night hackers had not been able to find a way to monetize the large number of vulnerabilities in connected automobiles. That now has apparently changed. “I suspect that we are going to start seeing any number of traffic control agencies in the country being approached by the folks behind WannaDrive asking for payments to not have the sort of attack that we saw last night in Los Angeles,” Murphy told this reporter. “It might take one or two more actual attacks, but I suspect that traffic control managers will be willing to pay just like Los Angeles did.”

Johnathan Quest from the Federal Bureau of Inquiry confirmed that the FBI was investigating the incident.

ECS-CERT said that it was working with GPS Affiliates, the company that sells the software and automotive manufacturers to try to come up with a solution to the problem.

CAUTIONARY NOTE: This is a future news story –