Computer systems for the City of Atlanta were hit by an apparent ransomware attack that has caused outages and is now under investigation by the FBI. The cyber criminals are demanding $51,000 to unlock the system, and one security expert believes the public deserves more answers.
City employees in Atlanta coming to work Friday morning were told not to turn on their computers and WiFi at the Atlanta airport was turned off due to a ransomware attack that hit municipal systems on Thursday.
As employees walked into city hall for work, they were handed a printed notice telling them to not use their computers until they were cleared by the municipal IT group, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.
The city is still working on mitigating the ransomware and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms did not answer questions from reporters as to whether the attack had ended. "What we want to make sure of is that we aren’t putting a Band-Aid on a gaping wound. We want to make sure that we take the appropriate steps," she said.
The attack hit early Thursday morning. Bottoms has repeatedly told employees they should monitor their bank accounts because city officials don’t yet know what information was compromised in the attack.