Hackers Use New Tactic at Austrian Hotel: Locking the Doors

As a result hackers waged dozens of attacks a day to make them financially viable.

According to the United States Justice Department, ransomware attacks quadrupled in 2016 to an average of 4,000 a day.

Security experts said the attack on the hotel appeared to be a novel example of an increasingly malicious and prevalent type of modern-day piracy.

It went on to demand a ransom of two Bitcoins, or about $1,800, and warned that the cost would double if the hotel did not comply with the demand by the end of the day, Jan. 22.

Last year, hospitals in California and Kentucky were targeted in ransomware attacks.

The ransom demand arrived one recent morning by email, after about a dozen guests were locked outof their rooms at the lakeside Alpine hotel in Austria. @drroykim: Hackers Use New Tactic at Austrian Hotel: Locking the Doors –

The ransom demand arrived one recent morning by email, after about a dozen guests were locked out of their rooms at the lakeside Alpine hotel in Austria.

The electronic key system at the picturesque Romantik Seehotel Jaegerwirt had been infiltrated, and the hotel was locked out of its own computer system, leaving guests stranded in the lobby, causing confusion and panic.

“Good morning?” the email began, according to the hotel’s managing director, Christoph Brandstaetter. It went on to demand a ransom of two Bitcoins, or about $1,800, and warned that the cost would double if the hotel did not comply with the demand by the end of the day,