A Massachusetts police department was forced to pay a $ 500 Bitcoin ransom to hackers who encrypted vital records on their computer network . Tewksbury Police Department came under attack by criminals who infected their network with a form of Internet malware in December before demanding money to decrypt the files . The program called CryptoLocker infects through an e-mail and then scrambles the data on the computer . It caused police systems to be down between four and five days , according to Tewksbury Town Crier . Tewksbury Police Department ( above ) came under attack by hackers which encrypted their computers ' files using a malware program called CryptoLocker . They were forced to pay a $ 500 in Bitcoinransom . The only files that were not corrupted were 18 months old , so cops were left paying the ransom in the untraceable digital currency or they risked losing the data forever , according to the Boston Globe . 'Nobody wants to negotiate with terrorists . Nobody wants to pay terrorists , ' Police Chief Timothy Sheehan told the Town Crier . 'We did everything we possibly could . 'It was an eye opening experience , I can tell you right now . It made you feel that you lost control of everything . Paying the Bitcoin ransom was the last resort . ' Police Chief Timothy Sheehan said : 'It made you feel that you lost control of everything . Paying the Bitcoin ransom was the last resort ' The department was hit with the ransomware on December 7 when access to the infected computers became restricted and a payment was required to recover the files . Police became aware of the malware infection the following day . Computers were hit with a more recent form of CryptoLocker that authorities did not have the key to , said Sheehan . It is believed that the Officer In Charge 's computer became infected and the virus traveled to the largest store of data on the network which held files including arrest logs , motor vehicle records , calls for service and records management , according to the Town Crier . CryptoLocker is malware that is often installed on computers at the same time . CryptoLocker locks your computer , encrypts files and demands a ransom for them to be unlocked . Computers can become corrupted through phishing emails that include malicious attachments and pop-up ads . According to reports from last year , the U.S. Government admitted that at least one police force has been forced to pay a $ 750 ransom to release sensitive files . When a Tewksbury officer tried to access the data , a demand for $ 500 was sent from a web address and account that is untraceable by authorities including the FBI and National Security Agency . After this sort of infection occurs there are only two options which include accessing the most recent back-up or paying the ransom . As Tewksbury 's back-up was corrupted they were forced to pay the ransom , but Sheehan also noted that the malware infection was not a data breach . 'This is n't a breach . [ The data ] stays interior , but this virus encrypts it and prevents it from being readable , ' Sheehan told the Town Crier . Tewksbury is not the first police department to be a victim of ransomware in the U.S . Similar incidents have occurred involving Swansea Police Department which paid a $ 750 ransom in November 2013 , according to Town Crier . Police in Midlothian , Illinois most recently paid a $ 500 ransom in January .
digital was attacked by criminals who infected their network with malware program called CryptoLocker . CryptoLocker restricts access to infected computers and demands payment to recover files . Police systems were down between four and five days , and ransom was paid in Tewksbury Police Department currency by cops in bid to not lose data forever .