The computers are back on at Atlanta City Hall, but questions still remain following last Thursday’s cyberattack that froze up much of the city’s online capabilities, including its email servers, payroll, and court records.
On Wednesday the mayor’s office announced the opening of an information hub on its website giving updates on the operations status as well as the process being made into the ransomware investigation. Yesterday it announced that the ATL311 website, which handles service requests, is back online.
While Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has said the city hasn’t determined whether it will pay the ransom demanded by the attackers, which is 6 Bitcoin, or about $51,000, that option may not even be on the table any longer. The hackers pulled their ransom demand portal offline this week following its leak to the public via local news channels, well ahead of the seven day timer given to receive payment before the group deleted the files.
Of course the city likely would have been unwilling to fork over the money to retrieve its files anyway, as sending taxpayer money to cyber-criminals isn’t exactly a good look for a new regime just months into its first term.
Now, as the attack comes under investigation both from the city’s own IT security team as well as Homeland Security and the Secret Service, the state’s recent focus on cybersecurity has become more relevant than ever.
In July the Hull McKnight Georgia Cyber Center for Innovation and Training is scheduled to open in Augusta, creating one of the largest centers of its kind in the nation. In a world where hackers are holding entire cities for ransom via online attacks, it can’t come too soon.
