By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Around 11-Thousand St. Joseph residents are being notified by the City of St. Joseph they might have been impacted by a cyberattack against the city in early June.
The city has sent out a news release stating those residents will receive letters regarding the incident on June 9th that could have exposed their personal information. Those residents will be offered free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services. Resources will be provided to help protect sensitive information.
City officials state there is no evidence that any information has been misused. It is possible, though, that records from the St. Joseph police and health departments could have been acquired by an unauthorized third party.
The news release says employees in the Communications Center detected technical issues with the city network at 2:30am on June 9th. The city IT department shut down all locations as a precaution and began its investigation by six o’clock that morning. Outside IT specialists were consulted. The city wiped and rebuilt affected systems, but certain files might have been acquired without authorization.
“The city regrets that this incident took place and is immediately taking steps to notify those affected now that the investigation has been completed,” the news release states.
The incident did not affect police, fire, and emergency medical services due to long-standing protocols and contingency planning. Workarounds kept city business running within hours of the network disruption.
“I’m very proud of the employees of the City of St. Joseph who performed exceedingly well in handling this situation, just like those at so many businesses and government entities, big and small, who have suffered from these types of incidents,” St. Joseph City Manager Mike Schumacher said in a written statement released by the city. “They made a negative experience for this organization the least disruptive as possible.”
The City of St. Joseph carries cybersecurity insurance. The St. Joseph City Council will review an ordinance to authorize a $50,000 insurance deductible payment during its September 29th meeting.
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