City of Oakland, Irish and Israeli universities suffer ransomware attacks

The city of Oakland, California, has fallen victim to a ransomware attack, forcing the city to shut down its systems.

The City said in a statement that the attack has not impacted critical services such as 911 dispatch, fire and emergency resources, which continue to operate normally.

The City’s Information Technology Department (ITD) is working in coordination with law enforcement to investigate the attack and restore impacted services. The City says it has initiated a plan to respond to the attack based on industry best practices.

The public has been informed that there may be delays.

“We are actively monitoring the situation and sending updated information as it becomes available,” the statement reads.

The identity of the gang behind the attack is yet to be determined. The City has not yet disclosed any information about ransom demands or data theft from the compromised systems.

Oakland reporter Jaime Omar Yassin was the first to break the news on Twitter last week.

Last year, Yassin reported that the City’s IT department was understaffed and vulnerable to ransomware attacks.

Munster Technological University data leak

Munster Technological University (MTU) in Cork, Ireland confirmed on Sunday that the data stolen in a recent cyberattack is now available on the dark web.

The university said in a statement that its technical advisers and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has informed it that specific data was accessed and copied from MTU systems during the ransomware attack and now made available on the dark web.

The NCSC has been assisting the MTU since the incident.

While the institution said it was not feasible to fully determine the exact nature of all data, including personal data affected or the identities of all people impacted by this leak, it has started informing those possibly affected.

MTU is also advising people to be wary of possible phishing attacks, providing advice on how to protect themselves from them.

The university claims it has taken precautions to safeguard its students and employees by deploying all of its resources in the investigation of the attack, with support of professional forensic experts and the NCSC.

In addition, the MTU has secured an…