The Download
Another municipality was brought offline by a ransomware attack. This time the victim is the City of Hamilton, a quiet suburb outside of Toronto, Canada. The City has spent nearly $6M already in recovery costs to quarantine and rebuild systems, some of which may be covered by insurance. Noteworthy is the city refused to pay the ransom. The city is projected to spend upwards of $33M to rebuild systems and upgrade cybersecurity posture through the year 2033. In the interim about 45% of systems taken offline have been recovered and basic constituent digital services reinstated.
What You Can Do
We've seen a number of municipalities targeted by ransomware attacks, often from eastern European countries. Most municipalities do not budget for adequate cybersecurity controls and training, only to find out the cost of recovery is far greater than the cost of prevention. If you are reading this blog, this means you are already security aware- congrats! Now is the time to analyze your threat exposure and continuously monitor your attack surfaces.
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