6/7/2023 0 Comments Ransomwhere cdot![]() ![]() Small and rural municipalities may not even know what they need or what to ask for, said Bob Bowles, director for the Center for Information Assurance Studies at Regis University in Denver. “They generally lack the resources to have the latest tools and they rarely have the latest generation of tech, which means as it ages, it becomes more vulnerable to attack.” ![]() “Cities, counties and school districts are not well-equipped to address a breach of any kind – data or security,” said Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, which tracks breaches and ransomware incidents globally. But the added expenses often are difficult to justify to a city council or school board until after an attack. And like most small towns, its small staff doesn’t include a dedicated cybersecurity professional.Īs cyber attacks and data breaches have increased in the past several years, companies and organizations of all sizes are taking security more seriously and investing in tools, staff and training. The city handles all sorts of financial transactions, from licenses and permits to court fines and water utility bills. It has a police department, a parks and rec department and a website. Lafayette is probably like a lot of towns in Colorado. … We’ll come out of the situation stronger, more productive and with our eyes open wider to be aware of what we need to do just to be more diligent of assessing our vulnerability.” “That said, there’s definitely things you can do to make sure that you can recover things easily. “You’re never going to be in a place where you can eliminate 100% of the risk,” said Wilmot, a spokeswoman for the city. July 2020 - City of Lafayette shuts down computer network after ransomware takes files hostage.The hospital began notifying 2,553 patients of the breach this month, according to Becker’s Hospital Review. June 2020: Children’s Hospital Colorado says that a provider’s email account may have been accessed by an unauthorized party in April, potentially exposing patient’s personal data.April 2020: Parkview Medical Center in Pueblo shuts down website and acknowledges a cyber attack.The hospital said it did not pay the ransom. April 2020: Rangely District Hospital becomes victim to ransomware attack that encrypted files that included patient health information.2019: Data breach at Aurora Water’s payment vendor Click2Gov resulted in customer data compromised, reported 9News.City said 2% of affected customers enrolled in credit monitoring. Attackers demanded $300,000, reports the Pagosa Sun. 2019: Archuleta County stung by ransomware resulted in a 12-day outage and severe impact to its dispatch system. Fall 2019: A hacked email account scammed the Town of Erie to wire $1 million to a falsified contractor’s account.2019 Regis University in Denver becomes victim to ransomware just as the new school year was starting. District did not pay, reports The Coloradoan. 2019: Fort Collins Loveland Water District struck by ransomware. State doesn’t pay and spends $1.7 million to contain and recover lost data. 2018: Colorado Department of Transportation computers hit by ransomware. Recent and notable database breaches and ransomware attacks on public facilities and organizations in Colorado. After a small Colorado city paid cyber attackers a ransom, there’s concern about the rest of the state - The Colorado Sun Close
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |