How Union Built PC Resolved the Cyber Terrorism Strike Against JATC IBEW Local 351

On July 14, 2016 Union Built PC received an email from Lou Jiacopello, Training Director of JATC IBEW LOCAL 351. Lou reported that one of their workstations became infected with Ransomware. We quickly took steps to eliminate this threat to no avail. Union Built PC’s Director of Technical Support, Glenn Joseph, was quickly on hand to assess the problem.

Upon investigation, Glenn determined that the only backup JATC 351’s data was 3 days old and performing a complete restore would mean valuable data most definitely would be lost.

We were forced to advise our client that only solution to this problem was to pay the ransom. This did not sit well with us, and there was no guarantee that after paying the ransom all the data would be restored. This was, however, the only viable option.

Ransomware attacks data files and encrypts these files denying you access. This type of cyber attack forces you to pay a fee – the ransom – in order to obtain a key code that will unencrypt the files so they are restored and you can regain access. Payment is made via bitcoin, and can get very expensive. In this case our only option, due to the nature of the data, was to pay.

Glenn supervised the job from beginning to end, and we were able to fully restore all of JATC 351’s data. The job did not end here! Union Built PC provided JATC 351 with our secure Union Built Cloud Storage Solution, which backs up all data on a daily basis. The Service also provides for client reports regarding the status of daily Backups. These reports are sent to Union Built PC and analyzed, so that we, can monitor the safety of your data each day.

Union Built PC has now ensured that JATC 351 has a fully secure and reliable backup plan.