How long will cyberattack keep city of Augusta paralyzed?
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - It’s been more than a week since a cyberattack brought many city of Augusta operations to a near standstill – and the computer systems still aren’t working.
For the first time, city officials acknowledged some public safety agencies are being affected.
Mayor Garnett Johnson tweeted that he visited the Charles B. Webster Detention Center “to assess issues concerning booking & releasing protocol due to the technology breach.”
He said Sheriff Richard Roundtree, the information technology staff and Superior Court Judge Daniel Craig came up with a backup plan.
EARLIER COVERAGE:
- City struggles with cyberattack as hackers brag about breach
- Mayor denies $50M ransom demand amid city crisis
- ‘Unauthorized access’ blamed for cyber-crisis
The Richmond County jail inmate lookup system wasn’t working during an apparently unrelated computer issue the week before last and hasn’t been working since the cyberattack.
The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office referred all inquiries to the information technology staff, and city officials have said public safety emergency services are operational.
But Johnson’s tweet Friday indicated the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office wasn’t unscathed.
The mayor gave an optimistic view Tuesday, saying “90%” of city operations are able to function with backup systems.
That apparently doesn’t mean functioning at 100%, though.
A sign posted outside probate court on Tuesday stated: “We will be closing at 1 p.m. today due to technical issues. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
“I want to give the people the confidence and knowing that we are working as diligently and as expediently as we can to get to the bottom of this so we can come back to 100 percent for functionality,” Johnson said.
Tuesday’s committee meetings of the Augusta Commission were canceled, and the full commission next week will meet on the same day as the committees because all resources are being diverted to addressing the crisis.
City officials have been largely tight-lipped about the problem. They say another update is to come on Friday.
Experts have said it has the hallmarks of a ransomware attack, and the known hacker group BlackByte has posted city data on a website as alleged proof that it’s responsible for the attack. The hackers say the ransom is $400,000, or they’ll resell the data to someone else for $300,000.
WHAT IS A RANSOM ATTACK?
- In a ransomware attack, hackers gain access to computer systems and then scramble the data. They typically demand large sums of money to unscramble it. Even large and prominent corporations have been known to pay the ransom to get their systems back. The hackers very often don’t have to work hard to get into a system, instead relying on s within an organization to fall for the bait and click a link or file in an email the hackers have sent.
However, city leaders say Augusta hasn’t gotten a ransom demand from anyone or been in with the hacker group.
But experts say it’s not like ransomware groups to directly victims.
Instead, they typically leave behind a note directing victims to a website. The website might post a message with a ransom demand and proof that the group is responsible – like what BlackByte posted.
News 12 asked the mayor for a timeline of when the problems might be solved.
“I don’t know,” he said.
A computer expert last week seemed to have a better idea.
Bill Toulas, who reported on the cyberattack for Bleepingcomputer.com, told News 12:
“The typical development of these attacks is that the impacted systems will be offline for a long time, so some services that are hard to set up on new infrastructure will experience extended outages. The impact on exposed citizens is that their data will soon be in the hands of multiple cybercriminals, so they will be targeted by phishing actors, scammers, and social engineering.”
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