The University of Calgary in Canada has just paid out a sum of $16,000 to retrieve important data that was being held hostage by ransomware.

According to a statement issued by the university, a cyber attack compromised its network last month and resulted in numerous issues, including problems with email and other important systems. Some of that functionality had already been restored by the school’s own IT staff, but the university also agreed to pay a large sum of money to the attackers for the decryption keys to the ransomware that is still affecting their network.

“The expertise of our IT department allowed the university to isolate the effects of the attack and make significant progress towards restoration of the affected portions of our systems,” the schools said in a statement. “As of Monday, June 6, email was available for faculty and staff. There is no indication that any personal or other university data was released to the public. ”

“As part of efforts to maintain all options to address these systems issues, the university has paid a ransom totalling about $20,000 CDN that was demanded as part of this ‘ransomware’ attack. ”

Ransomware attacks work by locking up important systems, which can then only be unlocked with the proper encryption keys. The attackers hold those keys hostage until the victim agrees to pay. Unfortunately, as is often the case with real ransom cases, the attackers will sometimes not give up the keys immediately and will instead ask for more money.

The University of Calgary said that it has received the decryption keys from the attackers, however, and it is currently in the process of evaluating them as it attempts to restore the rest of its systems.

“The actual process of decryption is time-consuming and must be performed with care,” the school said in it statement. “It is important to note that decryption keys do not automatically restore all systems or guarantee the recovery of all data. A great deal of work is still required by IT to ensure all affected systems are operational again, and this process will take time.”

Photo by 401(K) 2013