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New Information tonight about the city of Thomasville’s cyberattack.Today, 12 investigates learned this was a ransomware attack.Thomasville City Manager Michael Brandt says his staff is continuing to rebuild their network, and the city is still uncertain if anyone’s personal information was compromised.Back on June 11, members of the city’s information technology department discovered an issue in the network and quickly worked to contain the threat.The North Carolina Cyber Security team was called in to help with the investigation. This consisted of cyber experts from the North Carolina National Guard, the State Bureau of Investigation and other state and local entities.They are looking through the dark web and other data to see if anyone’s personal information was compromised.Brandt said there were indications that a ransom was asked for, but state law prohibits the payment of a ransom.He said his IT staff is still working to rebuild the network and that each week, something new comes back online.Brandt said billing was the biggest issue. City employees hand-stuffed envelopes to mail out utility bills, and they looked different, leading citizens to call and ask if the bills were a scam.Brandt said he was told at the very beginning that this process is a marathon, and that is proving to be the case.Brandt said, “It’s the first time I’ve ever been cyberhacked. So you learn a lot of new terminology. You learn a lot of new steps, and you learn what works and what doesn’t work. But the good news is that, that everyone came together very quickly, recognized what was going on, and had us resources on hand.”The city is still figuring out exactly how much all of this is going to cost, but it does have cyber insurance.
THOMASVILLE, N.C. —
New Information tonight about the city of Thomasville’s cyberattack.
Today, 12 investigates learned this was a ransomware attack.
Thomasville City Manager Michael Brandt says his staff is continuing to rebuild their network, and the city is still uncertain if anyone’s personal information was compromised.
Back on June 11, members of the city’s information technology department discovered an issue in the network and quickly worked to contain the threat.
The North Carolina Cyber Security team was called in to help with the investigation. This consisted of cyber experts from the North Carolina National Guard, the State Bureau of Investigation and other state and local entities.
They are looking through the dark web and other data to see if anyone’s personal information was compromised.
Brandt said there were indications that a ransom was asked for, but state law prohibits the payment of a ransom.
He said his IT staff is still working to rebuild the network and that each week, something new comes back online.
Brandt said billing was the biggest issue. City employees hand-stuffed envelopes to mail out utility bills, and they looked different, leading citizens to call and ask if the bills were a scam.
Brandt said he was told at the very beginning that this process is a marathon, and that is proving to be the case.
Brandt said, “It’s the first time I’ve ever been cyberhacked. So you learn a lot of new terminology. You learn a lot of new steps, and you learn what works and what doesn’t work. But the good news is that, that everyone came together very quickly, recognized what was going on, and had us resources on hand.”
The city is still figuring out exactly how much all of this is going to cost, but it does have cyber insurance.
