By Rodd Cayton — Town councilors in Bernalillo have made a move they hope will let the City of Coronado move on after a cyberattack earlier this month. The council unanimously voted to extend an offer of $82,000 to the threat actor behind the attack.
Mayor Jack Torres told the Sandoval Signpost that the action was taken in the hopes of protecting city systems, along with employee and possibly customer information.
Councilor Vincent Montoya expressed concerns about the consequences of “negotiating with” threat actors. After discussing the issue with his colleagues, Torres said, Montoya was convinced that “this is the best way forward.”
IT staff initially thought the attack, reported to The Paper. on Oct. 9, was merely an internet outage. Further investigation revealed the more nefarious truth, according to a news release on the attack.
The next steps will be determined by whether the unknown perpetrator accepts the payment. When asked about the possibility of the town being the target of another attack, Torres said that was one of the first questions he had for state and private cybersecurity partners. He said there’s no guarantee Bernalillo won’t be hit again, but the town and its partners are learning from the incident. Augusta Meyers of the Mid-Region Council of Governments, one of the entities with which Bernalillo is working, said she expects a prevention plan to be among the next steps.
Police and fire systems were not affected, other than a brief delay with police body cams. Water service was also uninterrupted, though customers could not make payments online.
Bernallillo is not the only local entity recently struck by malevolent hackers. The University of New Mexico Health System canceled clinic appointments and re-routed ambulances as it dealt with a cybersecurity issue. A new ransomware group called BYOD has reportedly claimed responsibility for that attack.
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