City of Allentown, PA forks out $185,000 for malware attack remediation

The city of Allentown reported a malware breach was detected on Tuesday 02.13.2018 and it continues to work on the fix. Per city Communications Director Mike Moore their IT department determined the problem was “beyond its capabilities” and the city contracted Microsoft to come in and the problem.

The damage

The city says there’s no reason to believe anyone’s personal information contained in the city’s systems has been compromised. As with most similar cases, malware variant remains unknown and the breach is under ongoing investigation.

The fix

Reportedly, Microsoft has been working on it since last Thursday. Some of the city’s systems have been taken offline and are not operating as a precaution, as the situation is under control but not fully mitigated.

The price tag

The city of Allentown  paid Microsoft a whopping $185,000 to fix the problem!  But that’s not the end of it.  Allentown city Council President Roger MacLean is concerned that the cost may go higher but says he needs more information.

Next steps

The of Allentown city is reviewing what lead to the malware infection to avoid falling victim again.  City Council members are now promoting cyber security training for city employees, as this may have been a result of an employee inadvertently clicking on a link with malicious code.