Dallas ransomware attack prompts new threat detection system

Significant disruption resulting from a Royal ransomware attack almost two months ago has prompted the Dallas City Council to approve a $3.9 million contract for a network threat detection system, StateScoop reports. The city's Department of Information and Technology Services has been tasked to allocate the approved spending on Netsync products and services until 2026. Dallas had several of its systems compromised following an attack by the Royal ransomware operation on May 3, with 90% of all disrupted services reported by city Chief Information Officer Bill Zielinski to have only been restored earlier this month. However, none of the stolen data has been exposed despite warnings from Royal. Ransomware activity has been elevated so far this year, according to Recorded Future threat intelligence analyst Allan Liska, who noted that 400 victims have been confirmed for three of the last four months, amid the fallout of the widespread Cl0p ransomware attacks involving the exploitation of a vulnerability in the MOVEit Transfer file transfer app.