St. Paul officials say the cyberattack that has wrought havoc on the city’s online services for weeks was a ransomware attack, a sophisticated form of online assault in which hackers demand payment in order to let users back into their systems.
The city paid no money and instead shut down its network to isolate the threat, according to a written briefing provided by city spokeswoman Jennifer Lor.
Because of the ongoing criminal investigation, the city is limited in what information it can share, the briefing said.
The cyberattack was detected on July 25 and led to the shutdown and subsequent disruptions in internet service at city libraries and recreation centers. In addition, City Hall lost its Wi-Fi, and online payment systems that handle water and sewer bills did not work.
St. Paul’s 911 and other emergency response systems remained functional.
To counter the online assault, the city has backed up all data and is testing servers as it restores and rebuilds its internal systems, according to the briefing.
St. Paul officials have said residents’ data was not at risk. According to the briefing, much of that information is kept in cloud-based applications that were untouched by the attack.
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