The FBI has been called in to investigate a cybercrime attack on Delaware County government computers that included a ransom demand of $500,000 in Bitcoin, reports Chad Pradelli and Cheryl Mettendorf for 6ABC.

The cybercriminals encrypted files on Nov. 14, making them inaccessible. Affected files included police reports, payroll, purchasing, and other databases.

Prosecution evidence was not affected.

Bureau of Election files and the county’s Emergency Services run on a separate system and also were not affected.

Ed McAndrews, a cybercrime attorney, and a former federal prosecutor said “ransomware” hacking is on the rise across the country.

“The average ransom has gone from $30,000 to upward of $500,000, and that’s the average,” said McAndrews.

Sources traced the IP address for the attack to the Netherlands, but the criminals could be anywhere in the world.

“These are professionals. These are not your recreational criminals,” said Phil Bianco, chief technology officer at the IT security firm Melillo Group.

Bianco said it’s important that companies and governments have an incident response plan to these types of attacks and that employees be trained better on how to respond.

Find out more at 6ABC.

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