Over Thanksgiving news has come in that Long Beach, California was hit by a cyberattack. This was the third local government to be hit with an attack within a week, following Huber Heights, Ohio, and Bladen County, North Carolina.
Long Beach has contacted the FBI for assistance in the investigation. A statement from the City Council indicates:
“Out of an abundance of caution, systems will be taken offline effective immediately during the investigation and potential remediation. Systems are anticipated to be offline for upwards of several days. City email and phone systems are generally expected to remain available and City Hall and other public facing City facilities will be open as scheduled. Updates regarding the current operations for specific digital services will be available in the near future. As the City works to resolve this incident, the public may experience some delays with systems and services, and we appreciate the public’s patience and understanding of these inconveniences.”
As yet, no threat actors have claimed responsibility for the attack,
Looking into the significance of this for Digital Journal is Nick Tausek, Lead Security Automation Architect at Swimlane.
Tausek begins by placing the incident in context: “Long Beach, California, home to nearly half a million residents, was hit with a cybersecurity attack. While it is not clear exactly what systems were affected, Long Beach officials confirmed that 911 and fire systems were not impacted.”
However, many other services were adversely affected, and the area has spent a period of time being unable to effectively function: “The city has taken a portion of its systems offline and is investigating the incident.”
Tausek weighs up what another form of ransomware-type cyberattack means for the world at large: “Ransomware groups are increasingly targeting U.S. cities and towns. In 2023 alone, California was hit with cyberattacks in Oakland, San Francisco, and San Bernardino, among others.”
Of particular concern are municipalities, as Tausek notes: “Local governments should implement efficient and comprehensive detection and incident response plans to mitigate the impact of these ransomware attacks.”
It is clear that in order to safeguard residents’ personally identifiable information local governments need to take a more preventative cybersecurity approach.
His advice is: “Adopting a low-code security automation platform allows cybersecurity teams to streamline monitoring and reduce response times, giving full visibility into their IT environments.”
