The cyberattack on Atlanta should be a warning to all municipal governments
LEARN MORE FREE TRIAL CONTACT EVIZONE
We tend to forget how sophisticated and ambitious hackers can be. With a ransomware attack, cybercriminals managed to freeze the city of Atlanta’s information systems earlier this year. This blocked residents from paying the city, whether it be for utility bills or parking tickets. It also prevented city employees from accessing their computers. This lasted a full five days before it was resolved – and it still left lingering problems.
When it comes to cybersecurity, governments often hold the same view as many naïve businesses – they have a “it will never happen to us’’ mentality. This leads to a blatant lack of investment in secured equipment and services.
Here is what David Jordan, chief information security officer for Arlington County, Virginia had to say to the New York Times:
“It’s going to be even more important that local governments look for the no-cost/low-cost but start considering cybersecurity on the same level as public safety. A smart local government will have fire, police and cybersecurity at the same level.”
The New York Times also interviewed the Mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, who said that increasing the city’s digital defenses had not been a high priority, but that now “it certainly has gone to the front of the line.”
The hackers demanded $55,000 worth of Bitcoin to unlock the files and programs. Even though it ended up being paid, the city lost years of video footage and other important data.
This is a common non-financial cost for the victim of hackers. In addition to the ransom payments and the new costs associated with a proper cybersecurity strategy following a cyberattack, there’s other high-level inconveniences as well. Data is lost, regular procedures are delayed, employees are left with restricted access to their computers, and both reputation and revenue can take a hit. The list goes on.
A major American city has now been hit by a cyberattack. It could have been worse, and it could have happened to any business or government. Evizone has what it takes to protect you before an attack ever takes place – as Atlanta should have prepared for. We offer our clients nothing short of the best cybersecurity services in the industry. Our proprietary software and military-grade encryption will keep your data safe and out of the reach of hackers. You can visit our website to test our services with a free trial.
About Evizone Ltd.
Evizone Ltd. is a revolutionary secure communications, encryption and compliance software and service provider based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Evizone offers innovative enterprise solutions in secure messaging (next generation beyond encrypted e mail) and encryption, encryption at rest, regulatory compliance, compliance archiving, WORM compliance, 17a-4 compliance, document life cycle management and communications governance and risk management. Evizone’s services protect organizations through best in class security, encryption, recipient controls, document life cycle management, discovery management, compliance management, compliance archiving, tamper proof WORM and 17a-4 compliance archiving and complete audit records against the enormous damage caused by communications breaches. Evizone’s patented technologies offer a level of security impossible to obtain with conventional or encrypted email and fast, powerful, user friendly compliance archiving. Evizone’s services are immediately available on multiple platforms and provide the strongest commercially available communications security and compliance archiving. You can follow Evizone on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.