The city of Antwerp in Belgium is working to restore its digital services that were disrupted last night by a cyberattack on its digital provider.
The malfunction disrupted services for citizens, schools, daycare centers, and police throughout the day.
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Email and phone systems are down
The investigation is ongoing, but the limited information available points to a ransomware attack by an unidentified threat actor.
Hackers infiltrated Digipolis, the city's digital partner responsible for administrative software, giving them access to systems . Naturally, all of this caused a lot of upheaval in the city.
The publication also notes that applications Windows have been affected.
Telephone service for some services is still unavailable and Alexandra d'Archambeau, a member of the Wilrijk district council, said earlier that the city's email service is also down.
The source of the ransomware has not been identified, but De Standaard reports that it has received confirmation that ransomware was indeed the cause of the recent disruption.
Additionally, the city's reservation system has been disabled, making it impossible for citizens to retrieve their ID cards. Today is the only day that travel cards can be picked up.
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Residential centers were affected
The Antwerp healthcare company (Zorgbedrijf Antwerpen), which provides care services to the elderly in the province, is among the companies affected by the attack.
Zorgbedrijf's general manager, Johan De Muynck, said the attack rendered the software used to track who should be taking medication useless.
The malfunction forced care staff at 18 aged care centers to use pen and paper instead of electronic prescriptions for seniors.
“De Muynck said that doctors should now sign the prescriptions and we should deliver them to the pharmacy. Although there is more bureaucracy, everyone is taking their medication today. I estimate that tomorrow morning everything can return to normal.”
De Muynck noted that residents' information remains secure, as the database was not affected by the attack.
The mayor of Antwerp said the city's IT systems may not be fully operational before the end of December.
Both the police and fire departments have been affected by [the incident], but emergency services are still accessible.
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A little over a week ago, the Ragnar Locker ransomware gang leaked data that had been stolen from the local police unit in Zwijndrecht, a municipality in the province of Antwerp.
One of Belgium's largest media outlets described the stolen information as one of the biggest public service heists to have ever occurred in the country . The cache reportedly included car license plates, crime report files, investigation reports and fines from the past 16 years.
Information source: bleepingcomputer.com
