Democratic members of Congress from Massachusetts are urging the Department of Homeland Security to broaden its efforts to help state and local governments to fight the growing number of ransomware attacks.
The lawmakers expressed their concern with the rise in these attacks on police departments, transit systems, hospitals, libraries, courts, schools, and numerous other government offices in Massachusetts in recent years. The request comes during National Cybersecurity Awareness Month when Massachusetts hosts its first Cybersecurity Week.
“The rise in these attacks is particularly disturbing because, in addition to the financial loss tied to data restoration efforts and to the disruption of operations and critical infrastructure, municipalities are at risk of losing important and sensitive data that are crucial to their function, and because ransomware attacks can disrupt vital emergency and other first responder services,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter to the DHS officials.
The letter was signed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Edward Markey (D-MA), along with State Reps. Richard Neal (D), James McGovern (D), Stephen Lynch (D), William Keating (D), Joseph Kennedy (D), Katherine Clark (D), Ayanna Pressley (D), and Lori Trahan (D).
Ransomware is malicious software, or malware, that denies access to a computer system until a ransom is paid. The United States Conference of Mayors says that at least 170 county, city, or state government systems have been attacked by ransomware since 2013.
Officials in Leominster, Mass., had to pay $10,000 to suspected hackers in April 2018 after an attack paralyzed the city’s school system. Also, the Athol, Mass., Police Department reportedly lost a lot of records after refusing to pay money to hackers that infiltrated its computer network. Further, the City of New Bedford was hit with a ransomware attack that infected over 150 of the city’s computers. Hackers demanded payment equivalent to $5.3 million through Bitcoin.
The lawmakers commended DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) for recognizing the need to protect municipalities from cyberattacks and protect voter registration. But they urged DHS to continue its outreach to local governments and provide a briefing on their efforts to limit these attacks. They also asked DHS to detail existing agency grants and programs available for local governments to protect themselves.