Atlanta computer network hit by ransomware attack

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ATLANTA – The city of Atlanta’s computer network has been the victim of a cyber ransomware attack, city officials said Thursday.

City officials learned that there had been an outage affecting various internal and customer-facing applications at 5:40 a.m., COO Richard Cox told reporters. The outage, which included the encryption of some city data, did not affect the Public Safety Department, the Water Department or Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, he said.

But some apps that people use to pay bills or access forensic information have been affected. Cox said the investigation will determine whether any personal information has been compromised.

Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms urged city employees and the public to monitor their bank accounts and take proactive steps to protect their personal data.

The city is working with federal agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as private sector partners, to determine the cause of the blackout and resolve the issue, Bottoms said. When asked if the city would pay a ransom to resolve the issue, Bottoms said the city would seek advice from federal officials on the best course of action.

The attack was discovered by the city’s information security team, who noticed “something that looked strange” on the server and began to investigate, Acting Chief Information Officer Daphne said. Rackley.

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