In March, the municipal office of Atlanta City suffered a ransomware attack. It was one of its kind cyber attack in which the large portion of the digital façade of the city administration went offline. It was found out that SamSam strain of ransomware was used in the attack. For weeks, city officials might have to carry out many everyday chores manually.
Security teams comprising of experts from different federal and state bodies took several days to complete the ransom ransomware removal activities. However, the complete restoration and remodeling of the city’s digital system are still under process. Initially, it was estimated that the complete restoration of Atlanta’s municipal system would cost $2.7 million to the taxpayers
However, the cost of restoration has been mounting continuously. As per a latest confidential review, the complete cost of rebuilding and remodeling of the digital network of the city government might cross the whopping figure of $17 million. It is important to note the given amount also includes the potential costs linked to the attack. The report mentions that the city government has to pay six million dollars for ransomware removal services and software purchases and upgrades.
It is interesting to note that the instigators of the attack only demanded $51,000 in Bitcoin for ransomware removal. However, the administration refused to budge to the attacker’s demand and went for ransomware removal on their own.
Future smart cities are already at risk
It is often discussed that future belongs to smart homes, smart cars, and eventually smart cities. But the event of Atlanta ransomware attack has raised concerns on the prospect of future smart cities. The Atlanta ransomware attack has shown us that a single cyber attack can bring the administerial operations of the entire city to its knees.
