City of Atlanta data compromised in Ransomware attack

Atlanta’s new Mayor Keisha Bottoms said on Monday that the city is making progress with the effects of a ransomware attack that occurred the previous week. All data that was effected has not yet been restored from backups. Currently we have learned that the following departments are experiencing an impact from last Thursday’s attack,

Atlanta Police
Watershed Management
Bill Payment sites are down

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security are investigating a ransomware attack to the City’s network servers and so far nothing has been disclosed about either investigation.
Atlanta COO Richard Cox confirmed the attack in a news conference Thursday afternoon. He stated it occurred at 5:40 a.m. He also said that the WiFi at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport had been disabled out of “an abundance of caution.”
Mayor Bottoms warned employees to monitor their bank accounts because they don’t know what information has been compromised in the attack. She confirmed that they did receive a ransom note demanding $50,000, but could not say whether officials were considering paying that ransom.
Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields said that officers had reverted to writing reports on paper out of an abundance of caution, but that as far as she knew the police departments computer systems were still operational.
No one has disclosed the state or conditions of the previous file, data, image or offsite backups at this time. Carefully monitoring backup results and logs while performing regular restore tests are one of the most effective methods for recovering from a ransomware attack.

Atlanta I.T. News