A Cyberattack Hobbles Atlanta, and Security Experts Shudder

[DonViejo]

By ALAN BLINDER and NICOLE PERLROTHMARCH 27, 2018

ATLANTA — The City of Atlanta’s 8,000 employees got the word on Tuesday that they had been waiting for: It was O.K. to turn their computers on.

But as the city government’s desktops, hard drives and printers flickered back to life for the first time in five days, residents still could not pay their traffic tickets or water bills online, or report potholes or graffiti on a city website. Travelers at the world’s busiest airport still could not use the free Wi-Fi.

Atlanta’s municipal government has been brought to its knees since Thursday morning by a ransomware attack — one of the most sustained and consequential cyberattacks ever mounted against a major American city.

The digital extortion aimed at Atlanta, which security experts have linked to a shadowy hacking crew known for its careful selection of targets, laid bare once again the vulnerabilities of governments as they rely on computer networks for day-to-day operations. In a ransomware attack, malicious software cripples a victim’s computer or network and blocks access to important data until a ransom is paid to unlock it.

“We are dealing with a hostage situation,” Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said this week.

more
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/us/cyberattack-atlanta-ransomware.html

[meadowlark5]

1. And yet we have the Russians who have their finger on the stop button of all sorts of utilities

but the republicans are a-okay with it as long as they maintain control and their jobs. They will forfeit the entire country just for the greed and power of a few hundred assholes.

[NightWatcher]

2. And you can bet money that one day (soon) the russians will shut everything down.

They've tinkered and gained access to every conceivable service and exploited their security. One day they will access the backdoors that they've hidden in all of these systems and will cripple us, but hey, it's cool because MAGA.

[Zoonart]

3. Yep... they are sitting on the off switch.

Not if, but when.

[meadowlark5]

5. But the Russians will attack a city that the deplorables, republicans and Trump don't care about

And would probably cheer if it did. Like if New York was blacked out for a few hours or more. Or if San Francisco had some utility shut down. Putin doesn't want to get rid of Trump so if he needs to make a move, he'll do it where it affects people who hate Trump but have a major impact. I doubt Houston or any city in Florida would get hit.

And if that's the case, nothing still will be done because it's just hurting libtards.

[Cattledog]

6. I can't think of one major city that went for Trump.

[fescuerescue]

9. I'm sure the Russians have built in backdoors into alot of stuff

But that pales in comparison to how much the NSA has.

Seen it first hand. (This predates Trump btw)

Hell, the NSA probably has backdoors into Russian backdoors.

[dalton99a]

4. Kick

[fescuerescue]

7. That's some pretty dramatic language there

And I've worked with breaches FAR FAR larger than this one.

Believe me, security experts don't shudder. They salivate when see this.

[procon]

8. This should scare the crap out of everyone in the country.

If hackers can take out the government of an entire city as large as Atlanta, they are capable -- and willing -- to strike anywhere. What if they took out a huge regional electric grid, affecting millions, like they have already threatened? Can they tamper with military weapons like atomic missiles? If they took out a huge national telecom service and blocked access to phones and the internet it would impact hundreds of millions of users.

We don't know how safe Atlanta's IT systems were, or if they were using the best practices to secure and protect their computers, storage, networking and other physical devices that process electronic data. Financial institutions have already been attacked and user data sucked up for who knows what sort of future mischief.

We don't know that any government agency, business or service of operating at maximum security levels. There is no cabinet level expert in IT systems, no agency of top tier programmers and cyber watchdogs whose mission is to provide expert advice, track down hackers, certify that computer services are in compliance with the best practices in cyber security. We are behind the curve, stuck in the ignorant complicity of antique, know nothing politicians who are still trying to wrap their withered brains around the delightful notion that the internet is a series of "tubes".