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On the morning of Sept. 8, the members of the Suffolk County Legislature were given a directive: Shut down your computers.<\/p>\n
Al Krupski (D-Cutchogue), who represents Riverhead and the North Fork, said the day prior he had a Zoom meeting that had to be canceled, the first indication that something was amiss. Soon after, the reality of a large-scale ransomware attack that has plagued the county began to come into focus. More than 10 days later, county email accounts and web sites remain down as investigators work to identify the source of the attack and safely restore the system.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a bigger, longer disruption than anyone could have imagined,\u201d Mr. Krupski said in an interview Monday.<\/p>\n
In a press conference last week, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said the initial investigation did not directly point to a ransomware attack \u2014\u00a0in which hackers threaten to disable a system or publish stolen data unless paid a sum of money \u2014 although the malware detected had \u201challmarks of ransomware.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three days later, however, the source of the attack was allegedly disclosed when a ransomware team called ALPHV or \u201cBlackCat\u201d claimed responsibility for the attack on the its dark web site, according to databreaches.net<\/a>, a blog that has been published since 2009 on data breaches.<\/p>\n Databreaches published a copy of a post the hackers wrote, where they claimed to have extracted more than 4 terabytes of data.<\/p>\n \u201cDue to the fact that Suffolk County Government and the aforementioned companies are not communicating with us, we are publishing sample documents extracted from the government and contractor network,\u201d the post read.<\/p>\n It included samples of extracted files from Suffolk County court records, Sheriff\u2019s Office and contracts with the State of New York and \u201cother personal data of Suffolk County citizens.\u201d It said the hackers have obtained \u201chuge databases of Suffolk County citizens from the clerk.county.suf domain.\u201d<\/p>\n Officials have not disclosed whether a specific monetary request has been made.<\/p>\n At a press conference Monday outside the Suffolk County Police headquarters in Yaphank, police Commissioner Rodney Harrison provided little insight into the current state of the investigation when asked about the types of documents the attackers obtained and how residents could be affected.<\/p>\n \u201cI wish I could share that with you,\u201d he said, citing an active investigation. \u201cA lot of things are still ongoing. As we get closer to identifying things, we will share with the media and public.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Harrison and Mathew Lewis, the police chief of operations, spoke about how the department has shifted its emergency call system to an old way of operating. Call details have been recorded by hand with information handed by \u201crunners\u201d to a dispatcher, rather than going directly into a computer system.<\/p>\n Mr. Harrison said the NYPD has provided the county call center five additional emergency call operators per tour, \u201chelping to reduce some of the stress on our current call takers.\u201d<\/p>\n The NYS Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services has also provided the department \u201chighly sophisticated technology that will provide additional firewall protection, enabling us to bring our [computer-aided dispatch] system back online safely and securely while the county\u2019s overall system continues to be addressed,\u201d Mr. Harrison said.<\/p>\n He added that the system with \u201crunners\u201d relaying information has not slowed down responses for officers in the field. Radio systems among officers are not affected, he said.<\/p>\n Police expect the CAD system to be up and running by the end of the week.<\/p>\n Mr. Lewis highlighted a case early Monday morning where an NYPD officer took a call of an active maternity in Coram. The call ended up in the hands of the Suffolk County Fire Rescue and Emergency Services, where a dispatcher guided the father through the delivery. The baby was born before first responders could arrive and \u201cbaby and mom are doing fine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Suffolk police have also partnered with the New York State Police, who are assisting with fingerprinting and other processes after an arrest at one of several barracks in the county, including Riverside.<\/p>\n The cyber attack so far has had limited ramifications locally on the town governments in Riverhead and Southold. Both town supervisors said their IT systems have been operating normally.<\/p>\n Southold Supervisor Scott Russell said Mr. Krupski has remained in contact with the town office.<\/p>\n \u201cThe communication has been fine,\u201d he said in an email. \u201cWe just do it the old fashion way and use a phone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere may have been a short delay in their ability to process pending applications but, there is nothing that couldn\u2019t wait while they sort through and fix their technical issues,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Riverhead Supervisor Yvette Aguiar said the town\u2019s system is independent has not been affected and the town has taken steps to \u201cstrengthen our IT protocols.\u201d<\/p>\n