Officials in Lafayette, Colorado , reported that the city's computer systems were hacked and officials were forced to pay a ransom to regain access to them.
According to the Daily Camera, Lafayette officials said hackers managed to disable the services and blocked access to them until the city paid a ransom of $45,000.
The attack affected email, telephone, online payments and reservation services, which were down.
The city's servers and computers are currently undergoing a cleanup and rebuild. Once this is complete, the relevant data will be restored to the system and operations will resume. In the meantime, the city is using temporary phones and email.
As a preliminary investigation revealed, the ransomware managed to infiltrate the city's network through phishing scams or malicious actors were able to guess passwords.
The mayor, Jamie Harkins, said using taxpayer dollars to pay the ransom was not ideal.
“We tried to look for any possible avenue to avoid paying the ransom,” Harkins said. “Staff worked to determine the severity of the attack, while analyzing data and backups to find alternative solutions.”
According to the investigation, no personal credit card information was leaked. There is no evidence to suggest that personal data was stolen, but the city has asked its residents to monitor their accounts for possible suspicious activity.
City officials said they will send security breach notifications to anyone with personal information on the city's network.
In response to the attack, City Manager Fritz Sprague issued an emergency declaration allowing for outside assistance from the state and private contractors.
The declaration will be in effect for seven days, unless extended by the City Council. The council is set to consider the extension next Tuesday.
To prevent a similar attack in the future, the city said it is installing encrypted backups, deploying additional cybersecurity systems and conducting regular vulnerability assessments.
