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QUINCY, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) – City officials in Quincy are on edge after a recent ransomware attack infected nearly half of the city’s internal servers late last week.
“Early Thursday morning, our IT department discovered something funny going on within the network of one of our Quincy police department servers.”
Chris Walker, chief of staff to Mayor Thomas Koch, said once officials became aware of this, they were able to trace it to a ransomware attack.
“The hackers actually broke directly into the network via a public-facing software program,” he explained.
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The hackers claimed to have the city’s data and were “demanding millions of dollars in return,” according to Walker. While the attack did disrupt the city’s communications, all the personal data was protected in encrypted software and did not appear to be breached.
The city was in contact with a cybersecurity firm during the incident and has contacted the FBI for further assistance. The investigation into who is responsible is ongoing.
WBZ’s Jim MacKay (@JimMacKayOnAir) spoke with Koch:
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