Tag Archive for: city

Hackers targeted Fort Worth’s cyber system over Texas’ gender surgery stance, city officials say

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The City of Fort Worth believes it was targeted by cybercriminals because of Texas’ stance on sex reassignment surgery, officials said.

The city’s Information Technology Solutions department learned about a post claiming that the city’s website was hacked on Friday, according to FOX 4 Dallas. They believe the hacker group SeigedSec, who allegedly posted about the incident on Telegram, was behind the attack.

“We have decided to make a message toward the U.S. Government, Texas happens to be one of the largest states banning gender-affirming care and for that we have made Texas a target,” the post allegedly said, according to city officials. 

Earlier this month, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill that banned gender transitioning treatment for minors, including sex reassignment surgeries and cross-sex hormones.

TEXAS TEEN, GIRLFRIEND HIRED GUNMAN TO KILL MAN’S JEWELER FATHER, POLICE SAY

Exterior of Fort Worth City Hall

The City of Fort Worth’s Information Technology Solutions Department discovered a post claiming that the city’s website was hacked on Friday. (FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth)

The information that was hacked pertained to work orders in the city’s system, such as invoices, emails between staff and spreadsheets. The IT department said all of the breached information would have been made public via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) order, if requested.

The hackers reportedly stole information from a website that tracked city orders, but no sensitive information was released.

“The City of Fort Worth has confirmed that the posted information did originate from our computer systems. However, the data came from a website that our workers use to manage their maintenance activities, not from the city’s public-facing internet website,” Fort Worth’s IT Solutions Director Kevin Gunn explained at a presser on Saturday.

“[There is] no indication that any other systems were accessed, nor any other evidence of sensitive information such as social security or banking information was accessed or released,” Gunn added.

TEXAS MAN PLEAD GUILTY IN MURDER-FOR-HIRE PLOT TO KILL HIS FATHER

Fort Worth, Texas skyline

The City of Fort Worth held a press conference regarding the hacking incident, claiming that no particularly sensitive information was accessed.…

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Dallas ransomware recovery “more than 90% complete,” city says

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Dallas’ head of information technology says the city has almost fully restored its system after a ransomware attack four weeks ago.

Chief Information Officer Bill Zielinski told The Dallas Morning News that the city estimates being “more than 90% complete” in restoring IT systems and services since the cyberattack.

“Following the initial attack on May 3, the city has worked with its cyber response vendors and IT service providers to review, clean, rebuild and restore city computers and servers to normal operations,” he said.

Zielinski didn’t give a timeline on when the system would be fully restored. The city in mid-May said the recovery process could take several more weeks or months to complete.

The scope of the attack, the amount of work the city has done, and what’s left is still unclear as of Thursday. City officials have cited the criminal investigation as the main reason to not fully explain the incident, and Dallas’ communications director emailed the mayor and City Council members Wednesday urging them to stick to telling inquiring residents and media that an investigation is ongoing and that updates will be shared “as appropriate.”

Ransomware is often used to extort money from organizations by threatening to block access to files or release confidential information unless money is paid. The city hasn’t given any information about a potential ransom and has maintained that there is no evidence any personal information from employees or residents have been leaked.

Royal, the group suspected to be behind the cyberattack, on May 19 threatened to publicly release data stored by the municipal government. It doesn’t appear that has happened as of Thursday.

The city said several servers were compromised with ransomware early May 3 and that it intentionally took others offline to prevent the bad software from spreading. It led to several departments being hampered and some city services being unavailable, such as residents being unable to pay their water bills online or not being able to report non-emergency complaints via the city’s 311 app.

Catherine Cuellar, the city’s…

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Hackers hold city of Augusta hostage in a ransomware attack

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BlackByte group has claimed responsibility for a ransomware attack on the city of Augusta in Georgia. 

The ransomware group has posted 10GB of sample data for free and claimed they have a lot more data available. 

“We have lots of sensitive data. Many people would like to see that as well as the media. You were given time to connect us but it seems like you are sleepy,” the screenshot shared by security researcher Brett Callow, who is also a threat analyst at Emsisoft. 

“We will help you to wake up. Here is a leak of 10GB of your data and very soon there will be much more free to everyone. The clock is ticking,” the ransomware group said. 

In another post on a hacker forum, the group claimed that it has additional data that they want to sell. 

Augusta is a city in Georgia, near the South Carolina border with a population of over 200,000 as of 2021. The city of Augusta has acknowledged that it began experiencing technical difficulties on May 21 and that it resulted due to unauthorized access to its system. 

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Georgia city claimed to be attacked by BlackByte ransomware gang

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Responsibility for the cyberattack against the City of Augusta, Georgia, which resulted in the disruption of certain city computer systems since May 21, has been admitted by the BlackByte …

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