Malware, Ransomware, Threat Management

Tennessee city still not recovered from ransomware attack

The City of Spring Hill, Tenn. is still suffering from the effects of a ransomware attack that struck the municipality in early November when government officials refused to pay the $250,000 ransom demanded by the cybercriminals.

The attack has essentially stopped the city from being able to conduct many of its usual functions as its IT department attempts to rebuild the database from backed up files.   The attack has locked city workers out of their email accounts, and residents are unable to make online payments, use payment cards to pay utility bills and court fines, or conduct any other business transaction. Instead, the city is asking that payments be made by check, and then either dropped off or mailed.

One after effect this has had is people are now forced to line up outside city hall to take care of their business, but on a more severe note the attack has also forced emergency dispatchers to log 911 calls by hand on a whiteboard, according to WKRN, and has shut down all mobile data terminals in the city's police cars. City officials told WKRN that all emergency services are still being provided.

The 911 and city email systems were first in line to be restored starting this week. No information is believed to have been removed from the city's server by the attackers.

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