StateScoop reports that the recent ransomware attack against the City of Oakland, California, that resulted in significant disruptions has prompted Oakland City Mayor Sheng Tao to propose an additional $10 million for upgrading its systems and strengthening its overall cybersecurity posture as part of the city's $4.2 billion overall budget through 2025.
Several Oakland city networks and systems have been shut down as a result of a Play ransomware attack in February, with attackers exposing stolen data in multiple instances but city officials have noted "outstanding progress" in its recovery efforts, saying that almost all impacted IT systems, including digital services and internal systems, have already been restored online.
"Together, we have recovered from this incident and can move forward. We remain committed to ensuring the safety and security of our systems, and we are already emerging from this stronger and more resilient than before," said Oakland Chief Information Officer Tony Batalla.
Officials at the City of Augusta, Georgia, have been noted by Mayor Garnett Johnson to have not communicated with the BlackByte ransomware operation that took credit for a cyberattack against the city that commenced on May 21, according to The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.
Attacks exploiting a zero-day in the MOVEit Transfer file transfer app to compromise various servers and facilitate data exfiltration efforts have been admitted by the Clop ransomware operation, also known as Lace Tempest, TA505, and FIN11, after the intrusions have been attributed to the group by Microsoft, reports BleepingComputer.
University of Waterloo in Canada has disclosed that its on-campus Microsoft Exchange servers have been impacted by an averted ransomware attack on May 30, according to The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.