INDUSTRY INSIGHT
Local government and cybersecurity: Working with all the stakeholders
On the morning of March 22, Atlanta came under attack by cyber criminals who took the city government’s data and systems hostage, demanding $51,000 in Bitcoin to decrypt the data. The ransomware attack was successful, and portions of the city’s digital infrastructure were compromised. Just a couple of days later, Baltimore’s 911 dispatch system was attacked and taken offline by hackers, seriously imperiling public safety in the community.
These recent attacks are just the latest examples of cyber criminals targeting state and local governments. In fact, just last year, the Islamic State targeted a wide swath of government websites, including those of the Town of Brookhaven on Long Island and the State of Ohio. It hijacked the websites and replaced their governmental content with ISIS propaganda to frighten America’s citizens and deface one of the primary means through which governments communicate with their constituents. These acts, while not devastating in their physical…
