In the hustle and bustle of running a city, the relentless march of time waits for no one. California City, like many urban hubs, faced the daily grind of server glitches and sluggish IT performance. Yet, in the tangled web of tight budgets and bureaucratic tape, they opted for an internal, one-person IT solution, unknowingly stepping onto a precarious path vulnerable to cyberattacks.
As server response times stretched, and outages became as routine as morning coffee, the city reluctantly embraced this chaotic norm. Little did they know, beneath the surface of seemingly routine technical hiccups, an unseen adversary was biding its time. The lack of a cybersecurity management plan, once dismissed as an afterthought, loomed large on the horizon, ready to unleash chaos.
Join us on a journey through the twists and turns of California City’s digital landscape, where Diamond IT becomes the unsung hero in a tale of cybersecurity calamity. From sluggish IT systems to a full-blown ransomware nightmare, this is the story of how a city’s battle for survival unfolded in the digital realm.
Ransomware Waits for No One: How Diamond IT Implemented a Cybersecurity Management Program to Keep a City Moving
When it comes to keeping a city running, there’s no room for security gaps and server downtime, especially with sensitive government information. California City knew that they needed help securing and optimizing their IT infrastructure several years ago and set their sights on Diamond IT. However, due to tight budgets and red tape, they elected to hire internally and relied on a one-man IT solution to manage the entire system.It wasn’t long before they noticed how unsustainable this would be from a response time standpoint, but what they didn’t realize was just how vulnerable their system was to cyberattacks. With crucial tools like email going down almost daily and without even basic cybersecurity measures like a password policy in place, it was only a matter of time before the city faced a serious breach; but when?
Promoting Cyberattack Vulnerability by Accepting Weak IT Infrastructure & Slow Performance as “Just How It Is”
With ongoing server downtime and recurring issues with slow IT performance, it became easy to accept that this state of volatility was ‘normal’. Employees grew accustomed to waiting upwards of 10 minutes for server response time. Repeated outages became expected and not cause for serious alarm, though it was increasingly taxing for employees relying on these systems to do their jobs.
Eventually, this grew so frustrating that the city brought the issue to the board to vote on budget expansion to bring Diamond IT in to take over as their managed IT services firm. Unfortunately, during delays awaiting board approval, they suffered yet another outage. Fed up that this was happening again, they called their IT contractor to take a look but were told, “I’m busy. I’ll get there when I get there.”
Assuming it was another issue of temporary downtime requiring an urgent but quick fix, they then called us, and we sent someone out right away. What we uncovered, however, was far more serious.
When Ransomware Attacks – The Devastating Shutdown of An Entire City
When our managed IT services technicians arrived on the scene, they discovered that while the server was on and connected, all files were encrypted, except for a ransom note. California City had been held hostage via ransomware, and everything, from emails to financial data to apps, was gone. The city’s website was down. The Department of Public Works lost their entire file system. Personally identifiable information (PII) had been compromised for government employees.
When confronted about the breach, the current IT manager made a quick exit, taking the password for the city’s backups with him. With no way to access any data and no way to restore backups, the city was left to contact their backup vendor, Barracuda, for support for six hours. The city was at the mercy of ransomware.
How Diamond IT Restored California City’s Data & Secured Their Data for the Future
When it comes to cybersecurity, we recognize the importance of addressing the immediate issue and putting a plan in place to prevent it from happening again. With Diamond IT on the scene, technicians worked to identify the issue and put a data recovery and security plan in place right away. Within minutes, the team identified the issue as a ransomware attack and began taking inventory of all assets and disconnecting all machines from Internet access.
They then moved onto addressing the backups and moving toward a data recovery plan. Coordinating with the Diamond IT dispatch team and with backup access restored, our professionals got USB drives prepared and wiped every machine and reinstalled Windows, eventually restoring all corrupted files. We helped make sense of previously undocumented and non-standard IT configurations, implemented staff redundancy so the city no longer relies on one person, and put together an incident response plan to empower future technicians to know how to respond to cyberattacks and outages.
Through our technicians’ efforts, we were able to get the city fully up and running and protected within one week. Unfortunately, a city can’t press pause just because Internet access is down, so through the data restoration process, payroll had to be run by hand, with employees having to revert to physical timecards. Water bill payments, the primary revenue for the city, couldn’t be processed by credit card, leaving the city in an unstable financial situation.
Had our team been the city’s IT partner when the breach happened, this timeline would have been reduced to one day, preventing these further administrative and financial headaches. With Diamond IT as the city’s official IT partner moving forward, city staff are feeling relief knowing their personal and professional data will be reliably protected and their systems will remain up and running.
Ransomware Doesn’t Discriminate. Be prepared with a Cybersecurity Management Partner.
Ransomware can happen to anyone, anywhere, and without a proper disaster recovery plan in place, the effects can be devastating and permanent. With IT security professionals like Diamond IT by your side, you can rest easy knowing that if a ransomware attempt happens, you’re prepared, and that data restoration is only moments away.
Ready to take the next step in protecting yourself from cyberattacks? Contact us today at (877) 716-8324 or click below to book a meeting with one of our experts.