Florida city agrees to pay $500k ransom to computer hackers

A Florida city has agreed to pay a ransom demand of $500,000 (£394,000) to hackers to get their data back.

It comes less than a week after a first Florida city agreed to pay a ransom demand to hackers who took over its computer system.

The total paid by the US state's municipalities over ransomware now stands at $1.1m (£867,000).

In an emergency meeting on Monday, officials in Lake City, which has a population of just 65,000, voted to pay a ransom demand of 42 bitcoins worth nearly $500,000 (£394,000).

IT staff in Lake City reportedly disconnected staff computers within 10 minutes of the attack starting - but it was too late.

The ransomware strain infected almost all of its computer systems with the exception of the police and fire departments, which run on a separate network.

Lake City government work has been crippled for a fortnight as a result of the incident.