BERRYVILLE, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas sheriff's office paid hackers the equivalent of $2,400 to regain access to hijacked computer files.

Carroll County Sheriff's Office Lt. Daniel Klatt said the department's system was infected Dec. 5 with ransomware, which typically works by encrypting computer files to deny its owner access unless they pay a ransom, often in the electronic currency bitcoin, which is hard to trace.

"This type of attack is designed to deny the owner of the data access to the data whereas in other attacks, people want to steal the data," Klatt told Fort Smith, Arkansas, televisi...