Another US City Pays Ransom After Attack
Officials in Lafayette, Colorado announced that the city's computer systems were hacked and they were forced to pay a ransom. Officials said hackers disabled the city's network services and blocked its access until the city paid a $45,000 ransom.
The attack caused city emails, phones, online payments and reservation systems to shut down. The city's servers and computers are still being cleaned and rebuilt. Once finished, the data will be restored into the system and operations will resume. In the meantime, the city is using temporary phone numbers and emails.
According to city officials, rebuilding the city's data versus paying the ransom, the ransom option far outweighed rebuilding the data. The inconvenience of a service outage was also taken into consideration. A preliminary investigation shows the ransomware infected the city's network through a phishing scam or by brute force hacking of passwords. Staff worked to determine the severity of the attack while analyzing data and backups to find alternative solutions, according to Mayor Jamie Harkins.
The city said personal credit card information was not compromised. There was no evidence that showed personal data was stolen, but the city asked its residents to monitor their accounts for suspicious activity. City officials said they would be sending security-breach notifications to those who have personal information on the city’s network. City Administrator, Fritz Sprague, declared a local disaster emergency that allows for outside assistance from the state and private contractors. To protect against future attacks, the city will be installing crypto-safe backups, deploying additional cybersecurity systems and implement regular vulnerability assessments.