Tag Archive for: city

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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City Employees Call for Answers, Ongoing Ransomware Attack on Dallas – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

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City Employees Call for Answers, Ongoing Ransomware Attack on Dallas  NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

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City of Dallas identifies group responsible for network outage, ransomware attack

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Dallas officials gave an update Thursday after announcing that city servers were under a cyberattack Wednesday, affecting several city services.

“Vendors continue to work around the clock to contain the outage and restore service, prioritizing public safety and public-facing departments,” the city said in the update.

A ransomware group called “Royal” initiated the attack, according to city officials.

Bill Zielinski, the chief information officer for Dallas, will give a briefing on the attack on Monday, May 8.

As of 10 a.m. Thursday, the city provided the following updates on services:

  • Dallas Police Department and Dallas Fire -Rescue service to residents is unaffected.

  • 911 calls continue to be received and dispatched.

  • 311 calls are being answered, but non-emergency service requests may be delayed.

  • Courts are closed and LiveChat is inaccessible. All cases will be reset; jurors do not need to report for service and notices will be sent by mail.

  • Saturday’s election is unaffected. Dallas County will share official information including results. Meeting notices are being posted and meetings may be viewed at dallascityhall.webex.com, dallascitynews.net/watch-live, Spectrum channels 16 & 95, and AT&T U-verse at channel 99. Contracts may be delayed.

  • All branches of the Dallas Public Library are open and in-person checkouts continue. Online materials are currently unavailable.

  • Billing for Dallas Water Utilities is unaffected, but meter reading will be delayed. Only the department’s interactive voice response system can take credit card payments. Disconnections will be discontinued until the outage is resolved.

On Wednesday morning, the City of Dallas’ security monitoring tools notified the Security Operations Center that a likely ransomware attack had been launched on their servers.

The city confirmed later Wednesday that a number of servers have been compromised with ransomware, impacting “several functional areas,” including the Dallas Police Department website, the city said in a news release.

“The City team, along with its vendors, are actively working to isolate the ransomware to prevent its spread, to remove the ransomware from infected servers, and to restore any services…

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