INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
More than two months after a cyberattack hobbled many of its critical municipal systems, the city of Atlanta is still sorting through the
wreckage of what is likely the worst cyberattack targeting a U.S
city to date.
On March 22, Atlanta connected systems city-wide were hit with a ransomware message locking their respective files and
demanding an approximately $50,000 payment in bitcoin (the price has fluctuated since)
The ransomware is believed to be from the group known as SamSam, which has been operating and executing similar attacks since at least
2015.
In the days following the March 22 incident, Atlanta residents were unable to do simple city system-dependent tasks like paying
parking tickets or utility bills
City employees didn&t get the all-clear to turn on their computers until five days later and many city systems still have not recovered.
On
Wednesday during a budget meeting, Daphne Rackley, Atlanta Interim Chief Information Officer and head of Atlanta Information Management,
disclosed new details about the extent of the damage
As Reuters reports, at least one third of the 424 software programs that the city runs remain offline or partially inoperable
Almost 30 percent of those programs are deemed &mission critical& by the city meaning that they control crucial city services like the court
system and law enforcement
In the meeting, Rackley explained that the city initially believed only 20 percent of the city software programs to be affected by the
attack, none of which affected critical systems.
While reporting the updated numbers, Rackley estimated that $9.5 million would need to be
added to the department $35 million budget to address the remaining damage
That amount is on top of the more than two million dollars in emergency procurements sought by Atlanta Information Management following the
attack.
TechCrunch has reached out to Atlanta Information Management about how that additional $9.5 million for recovery from the attack
would be allocated and will update if we learn further details
Earlier this week, Atlanta Police Chief disclosed that the cyberattack destroyed &years& worth of police dash cam video footage.
Atlanta has
been regarded as a frontrunner for Amazon second headquarters in some analyses,though it not immediately clear how the cyberattack will
