Maine police pay ransom to hackers to get files back

Some Maine police agencies say they have had no other choice than to pay a ransom to computer hackers to get their police records back.

Computers at the Lincoln County sheriff’s office were recently infiltrated by a type of virus called ransomware. It locked up the system and held police records hostage.

Sheriff Todd Brackett told WCSH-TV that after several attempts to retrieve the records, his agency paid a ransom of about $300 to the creator of the virus to get their files back.

Brackett says the FBI helped track the payment to a Swiss bank account but efforts to identify the hackers got no further.

Also in Maine, Houlton Police Department computers were held hostage and the police chief says the department ended up paying a ransom.