MALWARE ATTACK: Lincolnshire County Council confirms demand asked for 500$

LCC chief information officer Judith Hertherington Smith said: “Although the computer malware was originally identified as a £1m demand, we now have further evidence which I have seen and it was initially only asking for 500$ in Bit coin.

“Of Course, this would increase overtime if not paid, but as a public authority this was something we were never going to do.

“We immediately took action to look after all our data and closed down our systems so they couldn’t be compromised.

“I am pleased to be able to say that we are now at a stage where we are restoring services and when staff come back into work on Monday morning the majority of the systems will be up and running.”

On Friday, the authority offered reassurances after a malware attack which hit its systems earlier in the week - and promised it would not be paying any money to those responsible.

The authority was infected by a ‘ransomware’ attack on Tuesday after a staff member opened an email with a document attached, unleashing the software which locked the authority out of data including social care.