Illinois County Stricken with Grief

A new organized cybercrime team statements to have stolen sensitive info belonging to a county in Illinois. 

St. Clair County disabled its internet site on June 2 out of “an abundance of caution” following struggling a cyber-attack. Ransomware gang Grief has claimed accountability for the electronic assault.  

Mainly because of the incident, various county companies were rendered unavailable from May perhaps 28, which include access to court information and payment for ticket expenses. 

The county jail’s network was also impacted, with 1 girl telling 5 On Your Side that her associate was held past his launch day mainly because of the cyber-attack.

“I hold being told that the jail is on lockdown because there has been a method failure since last Saturday, and I want to know what’s going on,” mentioned the nameless girl. “No person can get released. Nobody can post bond. They won’t be able to check out out any data.” 

County Information and facts Technology Director Jeff Sandusky said: “Beginning about May well 28, St. Clair County grew to become mindful of a cybersecurity incident involving our laptop or computer programs.

“We instantly responded to safe our units and start an investigation into the mother nature and scope of the incident.” 

The county notified proper law enforcement authorities of the incident and reported it has been “working diligently with marketplace-primary 3rd-party cybersecurity specialists to look into the source of this disruption and affirm the effect on our methods.”

Sandusky included that the county has committed significant means to gauging the attack’s comprehensive scope and will give appropriate updates as the conclusions emerge. 

The county’s internet site by way of www.co.st-clair.il.us was restored by June 4, but some services remain unavailable.

Grief is an rising ransomware team, which claims to have swiped data from at minimum five entities, which includes Mobile County, Alabama, and HDHC Home Decor. 

Screenshots of the group’s site in the TOR network show the team statements to have purloined 2.5 gigabytes of details from St. Clair. Inside organization files and personal and buyer info are amid the allegedly stolen info.

Grief emerged at about the exact time as another new ransomware gang, Prometheus, which claims to have ties to REvil. 

Some components of this posting are sourced from:
www.infosecurity-journal.com