Tag Archive for: City’s

Local city’s functions restored, $350K used to handle ransomware attack

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After spending over a quarter of a million dollars to investigate a ransomware attack a local city is still searching for answers.

Blondezena Williams lives in Huber Heights and shared her concerns.

“They’re going to have to get it from somewhere right?” she said.

Williams is talking about the $350,000 Huber Heights paid to fix issues caused by the ransomware attack.

The attack happened on Nov. 12.

There are no cutbacks scheduled at this time.

>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Huber Heights provides update on cyber attack, says some services restored

“I prefer that they didn’t cut anything because we are still growing and to see a stagnation now would not be a good idea,” Williams said.

Many people are concerned about their personal information being compromised.

“Somebody from the Y(MCA) asked if I sent him a message and asked him for money and I said ‘no I didn’t,” Priscilla Klinedinst said.

She is always on alert now.

She is also worried about the plan of attack going forward.

“I would hate to see the police force be cut because I think we need them,” Klinedinst said.

Huber Heights City Council is still working on getting answers to if personal information was stolen.

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A City’s Journey to Smart Solutions: A Bottoms-Up Approach to Balancing Privacy, Security and Public Safety

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This article is the fifth in a series that follows the City of Oakland’s journey to balance privacy and security in the aftermath of a public safety crisis – from the formation of the first citizen-led privacy commission in the nation that was created in response to planned expansion of surveillance throughout the city, to a bottoms-up, citizen-led initiative from one district to deploy smart surveillance technology throughout all districts of the city. Read the first installment here, the second installment here, the third installment here, and the fourth installment here.

As the article preceding this Oakland series quoted The Dark Knight, this article will wrap up the series with another: “The night is darkest before the dawn…I promise you, the dawn is coming.” These words vowed by the character Harvey Dent/Two-Face were meant to assure citizens of the crime-ridden city of Gotham. But when will the dawn come for Oakland, a city in the midst of a long-lasting public-safety crisis?

The drones that took flight in Oakland in March 2022 came from a community left reeling in the aftermath of a dual pandemic of COVID-19 and anti-Asian hate, amid a tsunami of violent crimes that tore through all districts of the city. While crimes rose throughout the nation during the pandemic, Oakland scores No. 1 as the most dangerous on a crime index with a scale of 1 to 100. Oakland residents have a 1 in 77 chance of being a victim of violent crime – a rate that is almost three times higher compared to the state of California with a rate of 1 in 227.[1]

It was citizens from Oakland Chinatown who made the surveillance technology possible. A private donation of $80K enabled the launch of the drone program with the Oakland Police Department (OPD), after the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) was finally approved by the Privacy Advisory Commission (PAC) and City Council, although the source of the donated funds for the drones is under an open and ongoing investigation with the City of Oakland. It was the latest effort by the residents of Oakland Chinatown in response to the rise in violent crimes and targeted hate-crime attacks against Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI)….

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Idaho man charged with hacking city’s computer system

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Idaho man charged with hacking city’s computer system

The Newnan Times-Herald

Robert Purbeck of Meridian, Idaho, was charged with the Northern District of Georgia on March 2 for computer fraud and abuse, access device fraud and wire fraud.

An Idaho man is facing several charges relating to a breach of the city of Newnan’s computer system.

Robert Purbeck of Meridian, Idaho, was charged with the Northern District of Georgia on March 2 for computer fraud and abuse, access device fraud and wire fraud.

Purbeck – who made his first appearance before a U.S. magistrate judge in Boise, Idaho – also is accused of hacking into the computer systems of Atlanta-area medical clinics.

“This alleged cyber-criminal and extortionist targeted the city of Newnan as well as medical clinics in our district, stealing over 60,000 records containing personal information of our citizens,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Kurt R. Erskine.

Erskine said Purbeck also allegedly attempted to extort a Florida orthodontist, threatening to sell the Social Security number of his minor child unless the orthodontist submitted to a payment demand.

“The charges against Purbeck highlight the need to remain vigilant in our cybersecurity efforts,” said Chris Hacker, special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta. “The theft of intellectual property to be used to extort citizens is a very serious crime and one the FBI will diligently pursue, no matter if you are hiding behind a computer screen.”

According to court documents, between June 23, 2017 and April 28, 2018, Purbeck allegedly purchased, – on a criminal marketplace – the usernames and passwords to computer servers belonging to multiple Georgia victims. He then allegedly used those credentials to access the victims’ computers, stealing sensitive and personally identifiable information including:

• Medical records and other documents that contained names, addresses, birth dates and social security numbers of over 43,000 people from a Griffin, Georgia, medical clinic;

• Police reports…

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How Hackers Tried to Add Dangerous Lye into a City’s Water Supply

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On February 5, an unknown cyberattacker tried to poison the water supply of Oldsmar, Fla. City officials say the targeted water-treatment facility had a software remote-access system that let staff control the plant’s computers from a distance. The hacker entered the system and set it to massively increase sodium hydroxide levels in the water. This chemical (better known as lye) was originally set at 100 parts per million, an innocuous amount that helps control the water’s pH levels. The attacker tried to boost that to 11,100 ppm, high enough to damage skin and cause hair loss if the water contacts the body—or, if it is ingested, to cause potentially deadly gastrointestinal symptoms. Fortunately, a staff member noticed the attack as it was happening and restored the correct settings before anything changed.

How much of a broader threat might attacks like this pose to public facilities, and what can be done to protect them? Scientific American asked Ben Buchanan, a professor specializing in cybersecurity and statecraft at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]

What might make city infrastructure like a water treatment plant vulnerable to hackers?

Speaking generally, the challenge with a lot of these facilities is oftentimes that they are older, or they just don’t have the security infrastructure that we would want to guard against hackers. So, if the systems are not as secure as we would like, but their internet is accessible, that is a recipe for trouble.

Who might have been responsible for the attack?

Oftentimes the thing about targeting an industrial control system is that, in order to have the effect you want as an attacker, you need to understand the system reasonably well. If you’re truly a foreign attacker, you want to do a lot of reconnaissance on the system. If you’re an insider, you already have that kind of knowledge. A lot of times the people who carry out cases like this—of which there are not that many—were disgruntled employees who already knew the system and how to manipulate it. [But in this case] it is too soon to say, ‘This is a disgruntled employee,’ and it’s definitely…

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