Any employee, customer, or any kind of personally identifiable information was thus, never compromised,” Troup explains.
“There are two different systems : first is the public interface with a variety of servers, and the second is the financial system, which includes payroll and ledgers.
CITY OF QUINCY IL WATER BILL PLUS
Decryption Key ObtainedĪlthough the City of Quincy had to pay more than half a million dollars to get the decryption key for the ransomware, plus the fee for cybersecurity consultancy services, Troup says that so far there is no evidence of data being stolen from the affected systems, which he says, gives “a sense of relief.” The city’s meeting agenda published on the website of the City of Quincy did note two of the three names as Mullen Coughlin, LLC – a law firm dedicated exclusively to representing organizations facing data privacy and information security incidents – and Kroll Associates, Inc., a cyber risk and governance solutions provider. Troup adds that the consultants immediately started working even before payment for their services was sanctioned.Īuthorization of payment for cybersecurity consulting services, Troup says, was agreed Monday by the city council the three firms were not named in the press conference. The following Monday – May 9 – when the city’s administrative employees resumed work, emails and office telephone lines were found to be disrupted and inaccessible for some of the city employees, including the Mayor himself.Ĭiting this as an “emergency situation,” Troup says, the city immediately contacted its IT partners including their cyber insurance provider.
They raised a flag with the city’s IT department which “rushed in” to check the issue and eventually spotted the ransomware attack, Troup adds. This was affected which caused issues in their daily communications,” Troup says. “The police officials have laptops in their cars and something similar to that is what the fire department has. The first signs of the attack emerged early morning of May 7, when the police and fire department officials started facing issues on their systems. In Tuesday’s press conference, Troup discussed the exact timeline of how the cyber incident unfolded, starting with the initial disruption on May 7.Īccording to Troup, the entry point of the attackers is yet to be determined with the cybersecurity consultants along with law enforcement agencies including the FBI are still investigating. He says: “It’s remarkable how we are still able to function our critical services with the city like water, recycling, thrash, police and fire departments, through the entire situation.” Timeline of Events Troup says that it doesn’t appear that any data was exfiltrated. The ransomware attack affected the administrative office emails and phones, the communication systems of the police and fire departments along with the Quincy Public Library as the library services are hosted on the City Hall servers, Troup says. “The entire package which includes the fees of the three cybersecurity consulting firms and the payment towards getting a specific decryption key is $650,000,” Troup stated in the press conference. In response, the city council passed a resolution authorizing emergency payment of more than $145,000 for cybersecurity consulting services and an unspecified amount, which is less than $500,000 for paying the ransom. See Also: Ransomware Demystified: What Security Analysts Need to Know
The City of Quincy, Illinois’ administrative systems were hit by a ransomware attack on May 7, confirms Mayor Mike Troup in a press conference held on Tuesday. (Source: Muddy River News YouTube Channel) Mayor Mike Troup, R-Quincy, Illinois in Tuesday’s press conference.
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