The City of Dallas in Texas has been hit by a ransomware attack, leading to the shutdown of some IT systems to prevent the malware’s spread. Local media reports indicated that the city’s police communications and IT systems were closed down on Monday morning following the suspected attack.
The Dallas County Police Department website was also taken offline as a result of the security incident.
In a media statement, the City of Dallas confirmed that the disruption was caused by a ransomware attack, revealing that a number of servers had been compromised with ransomware, affecting several functional areas, including the Dallas Police Department website.
The City’s team and vendors are working to isolate the ransomware, remove it from infected servers, and restore impacted services. The City’s Incident Response Plan (IRP) was activated, and the mayor and city council were notified.
The court system of the City of Dallas canceled all jury trials and jury duty from May 2nd into today, as their IT systems were not operational, according to BleepingComputer. Ransomware attacks on local governments are widespread, with more than one incident per week, according to Emsisoft threat analyst Brett Callow.
He stated that at least 29 US local governments were impacted by ransomware this year, with at least 16 of the 29 having data stolen. Dallas is considered to be the largest city to be affected in quite some time, with most of the incidents involving smaller governments.
