The IT Nerd

I’ve been sitting on this for a few days, but now that the City Of Hamilton has confirmed that they got pwned in a ransomware attack, I’m publishing this story. Here’s what is known about the incident:

City manager Marnie Cluckie named the nature of the cyber attack for the first time during a virtual call Monday afternoon, alongside Mayor Andrea Horwath. The call was the city’s first media conference since the breach began on Feb. 25. 

The incident has shut down almost all city phone lines, paralyzed city council and impacted dozens of services including the bus schedule app, library WiFi and permit applications.

The city hasn’t provided a timeline for when the situation will be resolved.

“It’s impossible to know how long it will take us to get fully up and running again,” Cluckie said.

“I can tell you that we will only restore systems when we are confident we can do so safely and securely.” 

The city does not believe personal data has been accessed, she said. Hamilton police have been notified and will be investigating.

Cluckie said she’s been tightlipped about what’s happening behind the scenes as the situation is “sensitive” and would not reveal the amount of money the attackers are asking for or where they’re located. 

The city has insurance coverage for cybersecurity breaches, she said. 

This illustrates that no organization is safe from an attack like this without proper defences being in place. I for one would like to know exactly how they got in and what the City of Hamilton will do to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. Because anything that shuts down services on a scale like this is a non trivial event.

This entry was posted on March 5, 2024 at 9:34 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.