Page 15 - Threat Intelligence 12-20-2019

Data Breaches &

Attacks

Mississippi City Operations Disrupted by Ransomware Attack. The city of Pascagoula is dealing with a
cyberattack, according to city officials. The hackers asked for a ransom payment and compromised the city’s
computer system, interrupting access to some city information as well as shutting down some phone lines.
The attack took place Nov. 28, and security and technology experts are working to rectify the situation. “The
city of Pascagoula was infected with a malware payload from a third-party contractor connected to the city’s
infrastructure,” Acting City Manager Frank Corder said Monday. “The situation was immediately quarantined,
contained, investigated and remediated by the city’s IT contractor. No critical systems suffered data loss and no
ransom was paid due to this event. The city did not say what the ransom amount was, but said the city did not
pay it.

Source: https://www.govtech.com/security/Mississippi-City-Operations-Disrupted-by-Ransomware-
Attack.html

Cyberattack costs Woodstock $667K. The city of Woodstock spent $667,627 to resolve a cybersecurity attack
earlier this year. According to staff report, the municipality spent more than $560,000 on a cybersecurity
company, Deloitte, which helped them contain, investigate, and recovery from the breach. Chief administrative
officer David Creery said they never paid a ransom. "There's not necessarily a demand … the screen will
provide two email addresses that are untrackable," he said. "Those are the email addresses you would need to
use to engage with the threat actors.“Creery said the municipality had already backed up all the data that
became encrypted and inaccessible, and decided early on not to engage with the hacker. "We have a very
diligent IT team that has a ritual of backing up all our systems. So we didn't feel like we should be paying for
something we already had," he said.

Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/cyber-attack-woodstock-cost-1.5391680

Large hospital system says it was hit by ransomware attack. New Jersey’s largest hospital system said Friday
that a ransomware attack last week disrupted its computer network and that it paid a ransom to stop it.
Hackensack Meridian Health did not say in its statement how much it paid to regain control over its systems
but said it holds insurance coverage for such emergencies. The attack forced hospitals to reschedule
nonemergency surgeries and doctors and nurses to deliver care without access to electronic records. The
system said it was advised by experts not to disclose until Friday that it had been the victim of a ransomware
attack. It said that its network’s primary clinical systems had returned to being operational, and that
information technology specialists were working to bring all of its applications back online. Hackensack
Meridian said it had no indication that any patient information was subject to unauthorized access or
disclosure.

Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/large-hospital-system-says-hit-222527309.html

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