City confirms ransomware hack last weekend | KYStandard.com
City confirms ransomware hack last weekend
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City address hack, advises vigilance on personal accounts
By Nacogdoches Miller
Thursday, September 8, 2022 at 10:40 am (Updated: September 10, 11:21 am)
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A press conference from the City of Bardstown regarding a ransomware attack over the Labor Day Weekend left more questions than answers Thursday afternoon.
NACOGDOCHES MILLER/The Kentucky Standard
Mayor Dick Heaton addressed the ransomware cyberattack which disabled internet to homes and businesses during a press conference Thursday afternoon. The city is still investigating the attack.
Mayor Dick Heaton addressed the situation with what information the city was able to acknowledge at the time without posing issues to the ongoing investigation, which is being conducted internally along with help from private cybersecurity expert Kroll Inc., as well as aid from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Security Agency.
“We are now able to advise that the city was a victim of a cyber attack involving ransomware,” Heaton said. “Unfortunately, this type of criminal cyber activity has become very common with a growing number of attacks every year on private and public organizations.”
The city had released a statement earlier Thursday morning acknowledging the attack and that most services had been restored while others were continuing to be worked on.
“That said we are still receiving isolated reports of connectivity issues,” the mayor said. “We are working to address these as quickly as possible.”
The city began to release information on the “disruption,” ahead of the weekend and throughout the week as more information on the issue became available.
Customers were originally told in several posts that it was believed their personal information and computers were not affected, but as the situation continued, the city encouraged people to be vigilant of personal information and suspicious activity.
“Our investigation into the scope of the cyberattack is ongoing,” Heaton said. “We will provide prompt updates as we learn more. If the investigation concludes that any personal, identifiable information has been compromised we will inform the potentially affected individuals directly and provide details of the next steps.”
During the conference, Heaton acknowledged that no ransom had been paid by the city at the current time and said he would not speculate on whether the city will or will not pay anything in the future while the investigation is ongoing.
“While the investigation is ongoing, we are really limited on what we can discuss in that regard right now,” he said repeatedly.
Neither the identity nor the hacker's origins nor the amount of ransom being demanded was publicly released by print time for this edition.
Heaton addressed the question that is cluttering the city's social media page on why the public had not been notified sooner of the attack and the potential of personal information being accessed.
“We were focusing all of our attention on updating our services, myself included,” he responded. “Doing a thorough investigation, we were not wanting to speculate early on as to this, so we waited until we had gotten far enough along in this investigation to where we could say with a level of certainty that it was.”
He said some internal computers were still impacted but did not specify which ones.
The city advises everyone to remain vigilant and review credit card reports and account statements and report unusual activity. The City said they have no reason at this time to believe personal computers were affected by the hack.
Customers who lost internet for more than 24 hours will be reimbursed for the time they were disconnected and Bardstown Connect email users will need to update their email passwords to regain access.
Anyone with questions can contact the city at (502) 348-5947. For issues regarding IT support call (502) 348-7800.
The city recommends AnnualCreditReport.com or visiting the Federal Trade Commission at www.identytheft.govto check credit card identity security.
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Bookmark and Share
City address hack, advises vigilance on personal accounts
By Nacogdoches Miller
Thursday, September 8, 2022 at 10:40 am (Updated: September 10, 11:21 am)
PopularRelated
Master Distillers' auction packs them in again
Mail-in voting starts Saturday
KBF connects with bourbon enthusiasts
City confirms ransomware hack last weekend
Ky. Owl debuts three new whiskeys; updates public on construction project
Cheers to Bardstown celebrates community
Bourbon barrel relay sees crowd
Two indicted for overdose death
more
A press conference from the City of Bardstown regarding a ransomware attack over the Labor Day Weekend left more questions than answers Thursday afternoon.
NACOGDOCHES MILLER/The Kentucky Standard
Mayor Dick Heaton addressed the ransomware cyberattack which disabled internet to homes and businesses during a press conference Thursday afternoon. The city is still investigating the attack.
NACOGDOCHES MILLER/The Kentucky Standard
Mayor Dick Heaton addressed the ransomware cyberattack which disabled internet to homes and businesses during a press conference Thursday afternoon. The city is still investigating the attack.
Mayor Dick Heaton addressed the situation with what information the city was able to acknowledge at the time without posing issues to the ongoing investigation, which is being conducted internally along with help from private cybersecurity expert Kroll Inc., as well as aid from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Security Agency.
“We are now able to advise that the city was a victim of a cyber attack involving ransomware,” Heaton said. “Unfortunately, this type of criminal cyber activity has become very common with a growing number of attacks every year on private and public organizations.”
The city had released a statement earlier Thursday morning acknowledging the attack and that most services had been restored while others were continuing to be worked on.
“That said we are still receiving isolated reports of connectivity issues,” the mayor said. “We are working to address these as quickly as possible.”
The city began to release information on the “disruption,” ahead of the weekend and throughout the week as more information on the issue became available.
Customers were originally told in several posts that it was believed their personal information and computers were not affected, but as the situation continued, the city encouraged people to be vigilant of personal information and suspicious activity.
“Our investigation into the scope of the cyberattack is ongoing,” Heaton said. “We will provide prompt updates as we learn more. If the investigation concludes that any personal, identifiable information has been compromised we will inform the potentially affected individuals directly and provide details of the next steps.”
During the conference, Heaton acknowledged that no ransom had been paid by the city at the current time and said he would not speculate on whether the city will or will not pay anything in the future while the investigation is ongoing.
“While the investigation is ongoing, we are really limited on what we can discuss in that regard right now,” he said repeatedly.
Neither the identity nor the hacker's origins nor the amount of ransom being demanded was publicly released by print time for this edition.
Heaton addressed the question that is cluttering the city's social media page on why the public had not been notified sooner of the attack and the potential of personal information being accessed.
“We were focusing all of our attention on updating our services, myself included,” he responded. “Doing a thorough investigation, we were not wanting to speculate early on as to this, so we waited until we had gotten far enough along in this investigation to where we could say with a level of certainty that it was.”
He said some internal computers were still impacted but did not specify which ones.
The city advises everyone to remain vigilant and review credit card reports and account statements and report unusual activity. The City said they have no reason at this time to believe personal computers were affected by the hack.
Customers who lost internet for more than 24 hours will be reimbursed for the time they were disconnected and Bardstown Connect email users will need to update their email passwords to regain access.
Anyone with questions can contact the city at (502) 348-5947. For issues regarding IT support call (502) 348-7800.
The city recommends AnnualCreditReport.com or visiting the Federal Trade Commission at www.identytheft.govto check credit card identity security.
