Here’s what’s still broken and what’s not after cyberattack

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – While a lot of city of Augusta operations are back to normal after a cyberattack, three main areas are still recovering, but they’re expected to be back to normal soon, officials said Tuesday.

The city also said not to expect regular updates on the recovery, and the mayor said the city is insured against cyberattacks but wouldn’t give specifics.

Since a May 21 cyberattack brought many city operations to a crawl, the internal information technology team and outside cybersecurity specialists have been working to restore services.

“As a result of our efforts to restore Augusta’s network and service operations, many Augusta functions are fully operational,” city officials said Tuesday in a news release.

However, three major systems are still in the process of being restored:

• Geographic information systems.
• The enterprise asset management system that depends upon GIS.
• The solid-waste operations system.

These services are expected to be restored within the next two weeks, city officials said.

“So, people that are going out to our landfill as I mentioned, that is a remote location,” Mayor Garnett Johnson said. “We’re still working through the process there.”

The city last week reset and revalidated its user credentials and restored internet access, and things are going well, the mayor said.

“We don’t see any problem with coming back online,” he said. “But as you know, just getting all of our servers and everything back online just takes time. And we’re doing it in a very diligent way to make sure that we don’t incur any additional unauthorized access to our system. None has occurred again since our reboot. So that is good news.”

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The city again said Tuesday that it hasn’t been in contact with a hacker group that’s claimed responsibility for the cyberattack and posted some of the city’s data online.

“A thorough investigation is ongoing to determine the extent to which any sensitive personal information was impacted by this incident,” the city said.

Tuesday’s update from the city may be the last we get for a while.

“Moving forward, Augusta will not be providing weekly updates given the restoration of Augusta operations,” the news release stated.

The news release came a few days after word broke that the city hired the Mullen Coughlin legal firm and Charles River Associates to help deal with the cyberattack.

Charles River Associates is apparently focusing on sealing up the system.

Mullen Coughlin, meanwhile, describes itself as a law firm that, among other things, directs investigations into these incidents and determines who needs to be notified about data breaches and how.

Commenting on how the city is paying for outside firms, Johnson said Tuesday: “You guys are aware that there is an insurance policy that’s in place. The specifics of that, I can’t comment on, as you know. The city of Augusta is insured.”

In a May 21 letter regarding the city’s intent to retain its services, Mullen Coughlin makes reference to an insurance policy provided through AIG. It also adds that the city may be responsible for a “Self-Insured Retention.”

Self-insured typically means the insurance company doesn’t bear the cost of claims but serves in an administrative role.

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