Jacksonville Beach joins a growing list of municipalities to suffer a cyberattack, disclosing just last week that 48,949 people had their names and social security numbers disclosed during a January cyberattack.
“On or about January 29, 2024, [City of Jacksonville Beach] began experiencing information system issues as a result of a cybersecurity event,” the city said.
The LockBit ransomware group claimed the attack back in February. In statement posted to their website last week, the City confirmed the LockBit claim and said they are still working with federal law enforcement on the investigation.
“This investigation determined that certain files in COJB systems were subject to unauthorized access and that information may have been taken from the network between January 22, 2024 through January 29, 2024. As a result, COJB began a thorough review of the data stored within these files to determine the type of information was contained within them and to whom the information relates.”
Another Florida city, Pensacola, announced a cyberattack earlier in the week that caused serious issues for the local government making it the 21st U.S. municipality to suffer a cyberattack this year, according to cybersecurity expert Brett Callow.”
BullWall Executive, Carol Volk had this to say:
“This Jacksonville cyberattack echoes the severity of similar incidents like the one in Dallas, TX last fall and in Oakland, CA earlier that year. Just like those attacks, this not only disrupted essential services but also compromised sensitive personal data. With 48,949 individuals’ names and social security numbers exposed, the repercussions are profound.
“Data breaches of this magnitude lead to identity theft and financial losses for both citizens and institutions. The perpetrators’ demand for ransom adds another layer of complexity, potentially causing further financial and reputational harm to the municipality. The week-long disruption to city services underscores the immediate impact, while the long-term effects on infrastructure and security cannot be overlooked. We’ve all seen the consequences when critical services like hospitals are incapacitated for days.
“This incident emphasizes the urgent need for robust cybersecurity measures to defend against evolving threats. Implementing proactive strategies and response protocols including response and containment measures to safeguard against such attacks, as there is no end in sight to these sorts of attacks.”
To be clear, it isn’t just US municipalities who are the targets of cyberattacks. Hamilton Ontario and Huntsville Ontario here in Canada have been pwned too. That illustrates not only the fact that this is a huge problem, but municipalities need to wrap their heads around it or this will get out of control quickly like we’ve seen in the healthcare space.
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This entry was posted on March 25, 2024 at 9:56 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Two Municipalities Pwned In Cyberattacks In The Last Week
Jacksonville Beach joins a growing list of municipalities to suffer a cyberattack, disclosing just last week that 48,949 people had their names and social security numbers disclosed during a January cyberattack.
“On or about January 29, 2024, [City of Jacksonville Beach] began experiencing information system issues as a result of a cybersecurity event,” the city said.
The LockBit ransomware group claimed the attack back in February. In statement posted to their website last week, the City confirmed the LockBit claim and said they are still working with federal law enforcement on the investigation.
“This investigation determined that certain files in COJB systems were subject to unauthorized access and that information may have been taken from the network between January 22, 2024 through January 29, 2024. As a result, COJB began a thorough review of the data stored within these files to determine the type of information was contained within them and to whom the information relates.”
Another Florida city, Pensacola, announced a cyberattack earlier in the week that caused serious issues for the local government making it the 21st U.S. municipality to suffer a cyberattack this year, according to cybersecurity expert Brett Callow.”
BullWall Executive, Carol Volk had this to say:
“This Jacksonville cyberattack echoes the severity of similar incidents like the one in Dallas, TX last fall and in Oakland, CA earlier that year. Just like those attacks, this not only disrupted essential services but also compromised sensitive personal data. With 48,949 individuals’ names and social security numbers exposed, the repercussions are profound.
“Data breaches of this magnitude lead to identity theft and financial losses for both citizens and institutions. The perpetrators’ demand for ransom adds another layer of complexity, potentially causing further financial and reputational harm to the municipality. The week-long disruption to city services underscores the immediate impact, while the long-term effects on infrastructure and security cannot be overlooked. We’ve all seen the consequences when critical services like hospitals are incapacitated for days.
“This incident emphasizes the urgent need for robust cybersecurity measures to defend against evolving threats. Implementing proactive strategies and response protocols including response and containment measures to safeguard against such attacks, as there is no end in sight to these sorts of attacks.”
To be clear, it isn’t just US municipalities who are the targets of cyberattacks. Hamilton Ontario and Huntsville Ontario here in Canada have been pwned too. That illustrates not only the fact that this is a huge problem, but municipalities need to wrap their heads around it or this will get out of control quickly like we’ve seen in the healthcare space.
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This entry was posted on March 25, 2024 at 9:56 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.