Long-Haul Crime Log EP07 When cybercriminals try to shake down a small trucking company
George, the manager of a small U.S. trucking company, was alerted around 6 a.m. on a recent Monday that an employee was having computer problems. So George investigated. At first he thought it was a garden variety computer virus.\xa0\nBut this was no ordinary virus.The anti-virus software was disabled, and all of the files were encrypted. The same had happened to all the other computers left on over the weekend, as well as the server. The hackers left notes in text files to begin the process of attempting to extort the carrier. This was a ransomware attack. The hackers wanted $300,000.\nLong-Haul Crime Log tells the story of how George and his company grappled with the cyberattack. The crime left him shaken, especially since the hackers managed to access the digital nerve center of the company: the Transportation Management System, or TMS.\xa0\nThis week\u2019s episode is hosted by FreighWaves journalists Nate Tabak and Clarissa Hawes. Reach out at\xa0\ncrime@freightwaves.com\n\xa0or find us on Twitter @\nLongHaulCrime\n.\nReach out at crime@freightwaves.com.\xa0\nRead the headlines at FreightWaves.com\nSubscribe on Apple Podcasts\nSubscribe on Spotify\nMore FreightWaves Podcasts\n\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices