The University of Calgary was forced to pay 20.000 Canadian dollars to hackers who managed to infect its systems with malicious software (ransomware).
According to the Calgary Herald, the university's network had been infected with ransomware that demanded 20.000 CDN (over 15.000 US dollars) to unlock the valuable scientific data. 
Ως γνωστόν, μόλις εγκατασταθεί σε ένα σύστημα το ransomware αρχίζει να κρυπτογραφεί τα αρχεία απαιτώντας ένα τέλος λύτρα που θα πρέπει να καταβληθούν σε Bitcoin. Μετά την πληρωμή του ποσού που ζητάνε οι απατεώνες, παραχωρούν το κλειδί αποκρυπτογράφησης στα θύματά τους.
The university officials agreed to pay the ransom, but it will take some time before they manage to unlock all the files with the decryption keys. The process is time-consuming and it is not yet known whether the keys will work properly.
In a statement, Linda Dalgetty, Vice President of Finance and Services of Calgary said that the issue was «very difficult», and that the university's IT department staff works around the clock to discover the security holes that allowed the ransomware to infect their systems.
“The university collaborates with various experts from this field, and because it was a criminal act, the Calgary Police authorities are taking part in the investigation,” Dalgetty says.
“Given that the investigation processes are ongoing, we are not in a position to provide further details about the nature of the attack, specific actions to counter it, or how or if the decryption keys will be used.”
Note: Is it permissible for a university not to keep backups? Surely after this attack everyone learned something more. In this case, the ransom can also be called “tuition.”
