Still few answers ahead of North Miami meeting on cyberattack

NORTH MIAMI, Fla. – North Miami leadership has been in the dark during the 10 days since a ransomware demand appeared on city hall computers.

On Tuesday, councilmembers were set to receive a virtual executive session from the city manager, who, for some reason, has withheld details until now, despite calls from both the council and residents for more information.

Councilman Pierre Frantz Charles didn’t say how he’ll log into the virtual meeting with all the computers still dark at City Hall. He didn’t say much of anything to Local 10 News.

“Are you ignoring me?” Reporter Glenna Milberg asked.

”No, I’m not. I think you would be better off (unintelligible),” Frantz Charles replied.

Questions remain about whether the mayor — whose personal Gmail was hacked a month ago — opened that hacked Gmail on city servers, and what the plan is for offline city services.

The police department is using walkie-talkies to dispatch, according to a council member.

“We can say that emergency services and the 911 system are operational, but beyond that, we are not able to go into specifics,” a city spokesperson told Local 10 News.

Several questions remain, including whether the city complied with Florida’s two-year-old cybersecurity law, which requires notifying the state about the breach and fulfilling other obligations.

The law expressly states that cities “may not pay or otherwise comply with a ransom demand.”

It’s not clear how the city plans to move forward. Federal agents are working with city staff to investigate the source of the breach.