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It’s been well over a week now since the City of Atlanta, Georgia have disclosed that they have been under a ransomware attack that has crippled key services. The city is being held hostage until they can pay $50,000.00 in BitCoins to the hackers that have infiltrated the network. The attackers are forcing the police, water bureau workers, and maintenance crews to go back to basics and spending hours in order to write things out on paper.
While the ransomware has shown that there are vulnerabilities in any size organization, this is especially troubling when it is against those services that we all depend on. While there is an inconvenience to all because of the attack, ultimately Atlanta will get on with the business of taking care of the citizens of the city. Municipal Vulnerabilities While businesses are able to address issues that come their way in a timely manner, municipalities of all sizes run into an issue of needing to do more for less. This is one of the reasons that governmental agencies, organizations, or municipalities are so vulnerable to this type of attack. They spend their resources on helping their citizens, but IT Security is an area that seems to have been left behind on the way to making access more convenient. The issues can be varied depending on who you are talking to, but it will most likely come down to money or grants that will help pay for the needed improvements. While that is not an excuse for failing to protect a public network, it is the one most identified. If they had taken care of their security needs earlier, they would not be in the position they are in now. Process Improvements If there were any particular area that stands out in this attack, it has to be that they vulnerabilities that SamSam took advantage of have been out for a while. The IT Security group responsible for protecting the network failed to apply patches and update systems that had these vulnerabilities. The reason that will no doubted be the reason for this is that they are under staffed or they did not have the resources to do all the work that they needed done. This can be addressed by changing some of their processes and focusing on key areas that a businesses would focus on.
Aftermath While this incident is still playing out, and the ending still has to be written with the City of Atlanta. Other jurisdictions should take note about how they react to this attack. Whether it is the lack of resources or overworked personnel that are blamed for the ransomware attack, regardless, we can do better and we must. This should be a wakeup call for both cities and states and the need to focus on hardening their infrastructure in order to prevent these types of attacks occurring. Taking preventive steps in advance and addressing vulnerabilities as they are discovered could have gone a long way in protecting the Atlanta city network.
1 Comment
Joshua Gemeinhardt
3/30/2018 10:38:52
Great article Erich. It is a sad but typical tale. Understaffed organizations that pay more in the end, when they could have spent less in the beginning by preparing.
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