On May 18, the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism heard from Charles C. Hucks, the Executive Director of Technology for the Horry County, South Carolina, School System. The 52 schools and the central offices in the system were all affected when the decision was made to shut down over 600 servers district-wide because of a spreading ransomware attack. While the school system had dealt with smaller ransomware attacks, the systems administrators were unprepared for the manner in which this one spread. According to Mr. Hucks, the 43,000 students and 3,800 faculty are highly dependent on technology, and this attack caused significant disruption. The Horry County School System eventually paid $10,000 (up from the $8,500 originally requested) in Bitcoin to receive the keys to unlock their servers. Within hours the files and systems were decrypted and restored. On May 16, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) and Senator Linsdey Graham (SC) introduced the Botnet Prevention Act, which would give law enforcement greater powers to tackle botnets. Botnets are large groups of computers that have been taken over by malicious parties and distribute malware, ransomware, spam or carry out other types of computer attacks. Senator Richard Blumenthal (CT) is a co-sponsor of the bill. Justice Department official Richard Downing testified in favor of important provisions of the bill.
