The City of Lake City has confirmed that ransomware ‘Triple Threat’ attacked the functionality of some of its computer systems.
According to its Facebook statement, the Florida municipality was attacked on 10 June 2019 by the Ransomware ‘Triple Threat’. It is believed that this malware combines three different attack vectors to attack the virus urban system.
The program was able to disrupt Lake City’s ability to provide many public services. For example, ransomware crippled all municipal messaging systems. This also makes most landline phones inoperable.
Again, the attack had no impact on the public safety network, as Lake City had previously isolated and protected the assets through encryption. The ransomware attacks do not affect the city’s emergency services.
This is not the only good news. Brian Hawkins, City Information Technology Director, unveiled another encouraging result in the City statement:
Our system has shut down, but there is no evidence that confidential data has been compromised. All customer service, payment information, such as credit card information is stored by third parties outside the company and cannot be accessed by such attacks on our network.
The notification from Lake City is unclear as to whether the offensive ransomware was actually named “Triple Threat” or whether it was nicknamed the city’s IT team. A more comprehensive online search does not readily disclose previous research on various ransomware programs by that name.
While the IT City team worked with external consultants to restore all affected systems using a backup system, most Lake City departments used emergency phones to get their work done. The city government said the city council is still open and will send all important information to the Facebook page of the Lake City Police Department.
These and other similar attacks underline the importance of municipalities around the world to prevent ransomware infections.
Related Resources:
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This Ransomware Went From Stealing Passwords To Hijacking PCs