Dallas continues its recovery from a ransomware attack on the eve of its municipal election
The city of Dallas is currently grappling with a ransomware attack, affecting multiple city services and causing disruptions since Wednesday morning.
According to reports, the affected departments include the city's computer-assisted dispatch, field-based reporting systems, internal shared drives, and internal applications for personnel matters. Services such as courts, the city's water utilities division, permit issuance, and public works and zoning applications have also been impacted.
The source of the outage is still under investigation, but the attack has been linked to the Royal ransomware group, the same group responsible for a previous attack on the Lake Dallas Independent School District. This makes the attack on the city of Dallas the second ransomware attack linked to the Royal group in the Dallas metropolitan area in as many weeks.
Brett Callow, a Threat Analyst at Emsisoft, stated that Dallas is the ninth-most populated city in the U.S., making it one of the largest cities hit by a ransomware attack to date. The FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a joint advisory about the Royal ransomware group in March.
Royal typically uses the tactic of listing a target on their leak site to increase leverage by imposing a deadline and making threats to leak potentially sensitive data. However, as of the time of the report, Royal has yet to list Dallas on its leak site.
Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax has stated that employees are working to contain the issue and ensure continued service to residents. Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia has expressed concerns, stating that police operations have been significantly impacted by the outage.
Despite the disruptions, the municipal general election for the mayorship and council district representatives, scheduled for Saturday, remains unaffected by the attack. The fire and police response to 911 emergency calls remains unaffected as well.
The city has isolated the ransomware attack and is gradually recovering services. However, the websites for the city and the Dallas Police Department remain offline, adding to the ongoing disruptions.
As the situation continues to unfold, the city and its residents are working together to navigate this challenge and restore normal operations.
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