A major digital security incident has been declared sparking an emergency response after the breach of City of Saint Paul’s internal system. The alarm has kicked the city’s departments of Emergency Management and Office of Technology and Communications into action to mobilise local, state and federal entities and protect national digital infrastructure.
All partners provided a coordinated response that Mayor Carter described as protecting the “safety and wellbeing of our residents and citywide operations”. A barrage of cyber attacks occurred on Sunday affecting several state-run agencies in Nevada.
In separate incidents, the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Nevada Gaming Control Board were targeted, calling for a quick action from officials who reported no data had been stolen. Later it was confirmed some data had been compromised and extracted from the state’s network.
Upon being alerted to suspicious activity on the system, Saint Paul’s information and security team immediately launched an investigation to determine the linked-up operation of bad actors. They took some primitive steps to limit access to the targeted internal system and then initiate a full shutdown.
“We are the victim of a serious crime,” said OTC Director Jaime Wascalus.
In response, they utilised the comradery of every local, state, and federal partner to support the investigation and mobilise efforts.
In both cases, essential state services were impeded, and officials have engaged in around-the-clock activity to establish the circumstances and timelines of the incidents.
Public safety services in Saint Pauls remain fully operational however the system is offline until the full extent of the attack is fully investigated and what stolen sensitive data is known.
