While Atlanta is a beautiful, vibrant city that is very likely having a better weather day than you are, it is also currently in the grips of a massive ransomware attack that threatened to wipe their data–all of it.
No matter what your day is like today, you should be thankful you don’t work for the City of Atlanta.
While Atlanta is a beautiful, vibrant city that is very likely having a better weather day than you are, it is also currently in the grips of a massive ransomware attack that threatened to wipe their data–all of it.
Employees at the City of Atlanta spent much of their long weekend trying to recover from a ransomware attack that demanded a six-bitcoin ransom (the equivalent of $51,000 USD) to avoid being plunged into the digital dark ages.
While analogue media has been seeing an increase in popularity in recent years, it is doubtful the public servants of Atlanta will appreciate recording tax records by hand much the same way as they have embraced the revival of vinyl.
In Canada, we have seen a massive increase in ransomware attacks in recent months among public institutions such as the Children’s Aid Society and the Conservative Party of Ontario.
Every day we thwart potential ransomware attacks with D-Zone DNS Firewall for our municipal customers across Canada. Municipalities have a unique risk profile as their diverse, dispersed workforce combined with thousands of residential and business users add up to an infinite number of potential attack points.
The advantage of a DNS-based cybersecurity solution is that it provides an additional protective layer to a municipality’s defence-in-depth strategy. Thankfully, Canadian winters instinctively teach us the value of layers, and municipalities from coast to coast to coast are embracing this strategy to protect their networks and, most importantly, the personal data of their residents.
Depending on when you’re reading this, the City of Atlanta may have paid the ransom, or not, but in many ways the damage is already done. Several departments have already reported data loss including one breach that wiped out 16 years of digital records.
It’s difficult to quantify the cost of such attacks due to the combination of factors that go into recovering from and fixing the breach, but with tax dollars tasked to do more with less every day, it is hard to justify not protecting taxpayer data.
Curious about how a defence-in-depth strategy that includes DNS-level protection can help your municipality? Don’t wait for your Atlanta moment, start a free trial of D-Zone DNS Firewall today.
Spencer Callaghan is the senior manager, brand & communications at CIRA. He is a writer, former journalist, and has experience in technology, non-profit, and agency environments throughout his career. His areas of expertise include content marketing, social media, branding, and public relations.
