Tag Archive for: city

City of St. Cloud Responds to Ransomware Cyberattack

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Early this morning, the City of St. Cloud reported a cybersecurity incident involving a ransomware attack targeting its systems. Officials have swiftly initiated a coordinated response, engaging with both state and local agencies to mitigate the impact of the attack and restore affected services promptly.

Despite the challenges presented by the cyberattack, the City of St. Cloud has maintained its commitment to public service, ensuring that city operations continue with minimal disruption. Government offices remain open, operating under adjusted conditions to address the current situation.

Key emergency services, including Police and Fire Rescue, are fully operational, with teams actively responding to all service calls. The City has also implemented temporary measures to ensure continuity in its public utilities and services. Notably, the Transfer Station is accepting payments in cash only for the time being, but trash and recycling collection schedules remain unchanged, emphasizing the City’s effort to maintain routine services for its residents.

In-person payments for Parks and Recreation are cash-only. Online facility reservation payments and online event registrations are still accepting credit card payments.

Residents requiring building inspections are encouraged to contact the designated hotline at 407-957-7224. Similarly, inquiries and requests for Public Works inspections can be directed to 407-957-7269, where city staff are available to provide assistance.

The City of St. Cloud appreciates the community’s patience and cooperation as it navigates through this cybersecurity challenge. Efforts to fully resolve the issue are underway, and updates will be provided as more information becomes available.

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Leicester City Council systems shut down after 'cyber incident' – BBC

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Leicester City Council systems shut down after ‘cyber incident’  BBC

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Generative AI, cyber insurance fill out city CISO toolbelts

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Local government cybersecurity officials said during an online event Tuesday that procurement, cybersecurity insurance and generative artificial intelligence are all tools they can use to combat ransomware.

Officials said they continue to be concerned with ransomware attacks, a longstanding threat to the public sector that rose 51% during the first eight months of 2023 compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the Center for Internet Security.

“Unfortunately, Atlanta several years ago had a ransomware attack. So that is very fresh in their minds,” Atlanta Chief Information Officer Alan Greenberg said during StateScoop and EdScoop’s Cybersecurity Modernization Summit. “They are very incentivized to make sure they put in all of the proper protections.”

Local agencies often have strict procurement rules to ensure government has the opportunity to spend tax dollars on the most effective and cost-efficient technologies. But those slow processes can become obstacles to rapid response.

“This is a lessons learned — make sure you understand your entity’s emergency procurement process,” said Brian Gardner, chief information security officer of Dallas, which last year suffered a ransomware attack that knocked offline the court system and Dallas Police Department website. “When you have a [cyber] event, you don’t want that to be a tripping point for yourself to slowing your ability to recover down.”

Gardner urged security officers to familiarize themselves with state and local emergency contracting protocols so they can be ready for cyberattacks.

Kim Lagrue, New Orleans’ security chief, said she’s an advocate for cybersecurity insurance, which can help offset costs from common cyber risks, including data breaches and ransomware.

“Cybersecurity insurance gave us a blanket move forward,” Lagrue said. “But many areas, small municipalities, smaller organizations, struggle to afford cyber security insurance, as the premiums have escalated so high.”

According to a 2022 survey by the nonprofit CompTIA , 92% of local governments have a governmentwide cybersecurity policy for employee behavior and operations. The…

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City of St. Albert to undertake cyber security audit

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The City of St. Albert is planning an audit of its cybersecurity processes, policies, and programs this spring.

“This is to really minimize the risk,” Coun. Sheena Hughes said. “Should things go not the way you’re hoping in the risk department for cybersecurity, it can be very expensive.”

Hughes also said she thinks the audit will make the city government more effective, and cybersecurity is something all governments need to be on top of.

“The project objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of the city’s cybersecurity practices and controls to identify key risks and vulnerabilities, develop a plan to mitigate risks, and ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of sensitive data and critical systems is protected against potential cyber threats and attacks,” reads an audit outline presented to St. Albert’s internal audit steering committee last month.

The committee is made up of two residents, and in 2024 will include Hughes, Coun. Wes Brodhead, and Coun. Ken MacKay.

The outline says the city will hire a consultant to use frameworks like the V8 Controls developed by the Centre for Internet Security or the United States government’s National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cyber Security Framework to “identify, score, and assess risk level and maturity for each domain and related processes within the [frameworks] and provide [a] detailed report that outlines observations and recommendations for enhancements … to address identified gaps in controls or improvements of cybersecurity processes.”

Some aspects of the city’s processes that will be covered under the audit, according to the outline, include data recovery, malware defences, network monitoring and defence, penetration testing, incident-response management, security awareness and skills training, and more.

“You can prevent a lot of unnecessary costs by making sure that your risks are covered or minimized,” Hughes said. “So, this will allow that ability to recognize the fact that because everything is basically online now, we need to have the proper checks and balances in place to make sure that our data and all the other data for residents is properly…

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