A ransomware attack has crippled a number of IT systems in the City of Atalnta, as confirmed by the Mayor. The infection is said to have taken place very recently.
While there have been reports that systems are gradually shutting down due to the ransomware removal activities currently under way, some very vital services are still up and running. Despite this, a number of customer-facing and internal applications, such as the online city billing and court document access systems have been affected by the ransomware.
The only piece of good news in this scenario is that the ransomware attack did not affect some of the more vital elements of the city infrastructure, such as the public safety system, water services and the local airport systems. Chief Operations Officer Richard Cox is currently working with Department of Homeland Security as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Microsoft and Cisco engineers, to rectify the situation.
Investigators are currently still making assessments regarding the damage, as well as confirming exactly how much impact the ransomware has had, so that the ransomware removal can begin.
The city is yet to decide whether or not it is willing to pay off the ransom, which is on an undisclosed amount. The ransom, as learnt from the Mayor, is still being decided on with the federal authorities. On the other hand, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has said that she expects a lot of the offices to open tomorrow as usual; however, they will be functioning without crucial IT support.
It is interesting to note that a number of the services were supposed to be moved on to cloud based servers, which has prevented them from being affected by the attack.
Additionally, this is the very same ransomware that had affected the Colorado Department of Transportation. SamSam, which is a ransomware strain developed for this particular use, has been active on multiple fronts since the start of the year. This fact has been especially noted by the ransomware removal teams, who are currently working towards targeted ransomware removals. How soon the rest of the services in Atlanta get back on track; only time will tell.
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