Albany, which happens to be the capital city of New York is reported to have been hit by a ransomware attack on Saturday last week. And government authorities report that all city services except those marked to issue birth, death and marriage certificates will resume their operations as usual from Monday afternoon.
Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan confirmed the news through a social media post on Saturday and said that the attack has crippled most of the IT infrastructure which might take some time to recover.
“City officials are working over the weekend to recover the data from the malware attack,” says a tweet from Sheehan on late Sunday. However, her tweet did not reveal the details of the attack, the details of the ransomware variant which hit the database and the suspects behind the attack.
Highly placed sources say that city buildings will open to the public at 10:00 Am and the court services will open at 12 pm on Monday. However, New York State Vital Records Customer Services Lobby based in Menands will remain partially closed for the week. So, those interested in applying for marriage licenses can approach the Town Clerk’s Office in Troy, Colonie or Watervliet.
On the other hand, Albany Police Officer’s Union VP Gregory McGee issued a press statement on Sunday saying that the email service meant for departmental use and scheduling system were down due to the cyber attack. So, it could also show the impact on the computers loaded on the patrol cars for some days which might delay the update of video evidence from the patrolling cars to the central database.
However, contrary to the statement issued by Gregory McGee, the police department’s spokesperson Steve Smith said that no interruptions were witnessed on the network of the police department till date.
Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan says a high-level investigation is due to take place from Monday this week and updates will be tweeted from time to time as they are available.
