Kansas Judge Phil Journey confirms there has been an “unauthorized incursion” into the brand-new statewide computer system and it will be down for at least two weeks, affecting all Kansas state courts …
Hackers began surveillance of the city of Dallas’ networks weeks before carrying out a devastating ransomware attack in May, according to a recent report on the incident
The 31-page After-Action Report, published last week, outlines what happened before, during and after the ransomware attack crippled critical systems used by the city’s police, firefighters, hospitals and government officials. As the ninth largest city in the country, Dallas was a “a logical choice for bad actors wishing to initiate and prosecute” an attack, the experts said.
The city operates more than 860 applications and has about 200 IT workers within the Dallas Department of Information & Technology Services (ITS).
The hackers — part of the Royal ransomware gang — first infiltrated government systems on April 7 and immediately began surveillance operations. They used a government service account to pivot into the city’s infrastructure and deploy remote management tools.
From April 7 to May 2, the hackers exfiltrated nearly 1.17 terabytes of data and prepared themselves to deploy the ransomware, which they did the following morning.
“Using its previously deployed beacons, Royal began moving through the City’s network and encrypting an apparently prioritized list of servers using legitimate Microsoft system administrative tools,” they explained.
“City attack mitigation efforts began immediately upon the detection of Royal’s ransomware attack. To thwart Royal and slow its progress, City Server Support and Security teams began taking high- priority services and service supporting servers offline. As this was done, City service restoration identification activities began.”
The city noted officials focused on restoring critical systems like the Public Safety Computer-Aided Dispatch, which was brought down during the attack and caused police and ambulances to go to the wrong location multiple times for days.
Officials also focused on 311 services and city-facing communication websites as the first systems that needed to be restored.
In addition to internal and external cybersecurity assistance, the city called on federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI and Cybersecurity and…
The City of Dallas says that more than 90% of the network has been restored, but the details of the remaining 10% is limited.
DALLAS – The Dallas Public Library’s online catalog system is back up and working after a ransomware attack 7 weeks ago.
Since the attack that took down many city systems in early May, librarians had to check out books, DVDs and other material by hand. Returned materials were also not able to be checked in and put back into circulation, leaving many shelves empty.
Now library users and staff can search online for materials and apply for library cards again.
The library asks if you have material to check in, you can now return them to the library.
Customer accounts may not be accurate as staff work through the backlog of checkouts and check-ins, and you can expect it to take longer than usual to receive any hold requests.
“We are asking our customers to be patient with us and be assured that we will work through any issues on their accounts,” Director of Libraries Jo Giudice said. “We never charge fines for overdue materials, and any charges for failure to return items will be resolved.”
The library says it is in search of volunteers to help work through the large backlog.
Several city services were affected by the ransomware attack, carried out by the group known as Royal, including police and fire dispatch, courts, online payment systems and Dallas Animal Services among others.
Public computers at the library will still be unavailable, but the Dallas Public Library’s GED Testing Center also resumed service. The library offers testing Tuesday through Saturday at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library.
Some of the city’s dispatch systems have already been restored following backlash from police officers and firefighters, who reported struggles in addressing reported incidents due to the attack but all court hearings and trials remain to be suspended.
Meanwhile, Dallas Water Utilities had its payment systems and meter reading software online on May 11, but public library computers continue to not be operational.
“There is still no indication data from residents, vendors or employees has been leaked. Given the complexity of checking, cleaning, and restoring interoperability to remaining departmental devices, systems, and applications, it will likely take weeks to get back to full functionality,” said officials.