Pennsylvania City Paid $500K to Ransomware Perpetrators
TL;DR
York City, Pennsylvania paid a $500,000 ransom after a July 2025 cyberattack disabled its IT systems, including email and parking payments. The city's insurer negotiated the payment down from an initial $1 million demand.
Source: York Daily Record
A cyberattack last summer that cut York City in Pennsylvania off from its computer systems resulted in a $500,000 ransom payout. Former Mayor Michael Helfrich confirmed the details, saying the attack began Jul. 8, 2025 and seized control of the city's IT infrastructure – staff couldn’t access email, and the digital kiosks to pay for parking at the city’s three parking garages went down, as two examples. “We had no computers, or email, or anything,” he said. The email system was down for about two weeks as a result of the cyberattack, while the parking issues lasted about three weeks. The city’s insurance carrier had a team that specialized in ransomware. They negotiated with the perpetrators over the summer and talked them down from their initial $1 million demand to settle for $500,000. Full Story