Ransomware incidents can be devastating for any individual, company or, in this case, government organization. According to specialists from a cyber security consulting company, the city of Knoxville, Tennessee, had to shut down its computer networks due to the presence of encryption malware on its systems.
The incident occurred in the early morning of June 11, so local government information security teams did not detect the intrusion until the malware had already run and spread across their networks.
“Cyber attacks can happen to anyone or any government no matter how good the defense is. In a lot of cases it’s not a matter of if but a matter of when. Our IT department has been in contact with the city and we stand ready to help if they need it." – @GlennJacobsTN pic.twitter.com/34g5ljtGql
— Knox Co. Government (@KnoxGov) June 11, 2020
As a security measure, the Tennessee IT team shut down their servers and compromised workstations. In addition, to an unprecedented extent, it was determined to cut off the internet connection of the entire city, mentioning specialists from a cyber security consulting company. This outage was experienced by all Internet users in the city, as online utilities were affected.
It should be noted that Knoxville’s emergency services (police, fire department, emergency department) were not affected by this incident, as they operate in systems away from the compromise ..
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