12/1/2023 0 Comments City of quincy retirement 2021![]() ![]() No updates on missing $3.5 million stolen in email phishing scheme He added that it would be beneficial for the city to hire its own security expert within his department. When someone logged into the software from a city computer, hackers were able to work their way into the larger city system.īrian Glavin, director of information technology for the city, said two-factor authentication will now be required for anyone logging in. Hackers were able to break into the system through a web-based software used by the police and fire departments, officials said. Knock on wood, we suffered no material damage." "Sophos and our IT team essentially went computer by computer, network by network, server by server scouring, scanning and cleaning any suspect material off of the network. "This attack is a little more sophisticated, a little tougher to deal with than the usual attacks we're accustomed to when we see email phishing scams," Walker told city councilors Monday. The server on which the hack was initially discovered has still not been brought back online. The city then reached out to security contractor Sophos – hired by Quincy in 2018 to beef up security following an email phishing scheme – which brought in "more than a dozen" engineers to tackle the hack, Walker said. When officials tried to restart the system, that's when they discovered the hack and several text files demanding money for the safe return of city data. 3 first alerted the city's technology department that something was wrong. Walker said irregularities in the police department's system on Feb. Thankfully, our backup systems were intact and protected." "The theft of data, the permits, licenses, financial records, those sorts of things that really could have made operating the city a little more difficult. "Speaking anecdotally to some folks in other places and the experts, (losing data) was really probably the biggest threat of damage that we faced," Walker said. Employee information was also kept safe through encrypted software, and Walker said the city does not maintain banking or personal information of city residents. The city did not permanently lose any data, he added, and no school department records were accessed. "But it wasn't, at least to our knowledge at this point." The damage could have been severe, and the recovery could have been quite lengthy," Walker said. He said hackers did manage to extract data from city servers, but that they didn't get their hands on anything that "wouldn't already be a public record." ![]() QUINCY – Officials say hackers were able to break into the city's computer network through a public-facing web application used by the police and fire departments in an attack that took down all 60 of the city's servers and included a demand for money for the safe return of Quincy data.Ĭhris Walker, chief of staff to Mayor Thomas Koch, this week told city councilors that almost all of the city's servers are back up and running after the "sophisticated" attack that touched every city department two weeks ago.
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