Cyberattacks in the US and Spain cause outages

Hackers turn their attention to municipalities around the world, this time hitting several targets in the US and Spain with cyberattacks.

See also: What are the most common cyberattacks in recent years?

In the US, Germantown, Tennessee, reported an breach of internal servers on Friday afternoon. On Monday, the city of 41,000 people – about 30 minutes from Memphis – said it had restored phone lines to its offices. Some of the WiFi at government facilities is still down.

After being notified by city authorities at 6 a.m. on Friday, it was reported that thesystem city's "cybersecurity malware," as stated in a previous announcement.

“Initial assessments indicate that data related to financial, public services and payment information has not been compromised. As a precautionary measure, these systems are intentionally cloud- and hosted off-premises to minimize the impact of potential cyberattacks.“

“Although the impact is minimal, access to services such as issuing permits and responding to requests for public documents may be delayed.”

The city did not respond to requests for comment on what exactly happened to the affected servers, but the statement said the servers were “isolated” and all computers on the network were down. Temporary websites were set up for paying utility bills and taxes, but the city noted that payments can also be made in person at City Hall.

All fire and police services, including the city's 911 system, are still operational. The FBI is assisting the city with the investigation, and incident responders are assisting with the recovery effort.

See also: Cyberattacks on "critical infrastructure" are increasing

After a 2023 filled with devastating attacks at the city, county, and state levels, 2024 has already seen several incidents.

Fulton County is still struggling to recover from a ransomware that caused outages affecting nearly every department of government.

Two cities in Spain – Teo and Sant Antoni de Portmany – announced cyberattacks last week that limited their ability to operate and provide services. The cities, which both have fewer than 30,000 residents, contacted the National Cryptological Center (CCN) for assistance, along with other law enforcement authorities.

Sant Antoni de Portmany, located on the island of Ibiza, announced that the ransomware attack was detected just before midnight on Thursday and has already restricted the work of city employees. The city has taken security measures while the scale of the attack is analyzed.

The attack on Teo occurred on the afternoon of January 24 and “paralyzed administrative activity for the following days.” The cyberattack affected computers used in social service offices and the Women’s Information Center. The mayor and city council are working with state authorities, the Spanish Data Protection Authority, and national police authorities in the recovery effort.

See also: Oldham Council: 10,000 cyberattacks daily

What are the best practices for preventing cyberattacks?

• Staff training is crucial. Staff must be aware of the different forms of cyberattacks, such as phishing emails and ransomware, as well as how to deal with them.
• It is important to have a strong wall of protection between the network and the outside world. This can be achieved by using firewalls and other security technologies.
• Regular updates and monitoring of systems are essential to address new threats. Updates should include both security software and operating systems.
• Using multi-factor authentication can provide an extra layer of security. This means that the user must provide two or more forms of evidence to prove their identity.
• Finally, creating and maintaining a disaster recovery plan is crucial. This should include regularly backing up data and ensuring that it can be quickly restored in the event of a cyberattack.

Source: therecord