As tourists descended on Bardstown, Kentucky — the “Bourbon Capital of the World” — for Labor Day weekend, the town had a problem: A ransomware attack hit the local government, knocking municipal internet service provider (ISP) Bardstown Connect offline.
The initial outage struck last Friday and lasted 18 hours, the Nelson County Gazette reported. Bardstown is a small city of roughly 13,000 people — and Bardstown Connect is the high speed ISP for a large portion of the city’s residents and local businesses.
Cybercriminal gangs have often struck local governments which may not have the IT resources to immediately respond — at times disrupting vital services.
Recorded Future threat analyst and ransomware researcher Allan Liska agreed the attack appears to represent a new, and particularly devastating, tactic.
However, issues continued throughout the week, both for some Bardstown Connect customers and those seeking to access some digital city services.
