Mission expects ransomware impact to last months Progress Times

pThe city of Mission expects the fallout from a debilitating ransomware attack last month to have an impact for monthspp ppThe city said so in correspondence last Thursday seeking an attorney generals opinion allowing it to withhold contracts with outside cybersecurity experts and legal council asked for by the Progress Times through an open records requestpp ppThe mitigation and recovery efforts are ongoing and expected to continue for months the city saidpp ppThe city says those documents should be withheld because the services outlined in them include vulnerability reports assessment of computer programs and unauthorized access of the Citys electronically stored information by unauthorized persons the release of which could place Mission at risk of more cybersecurity incidentspp pppp ppThe release of those documents could also interfere with parallel investigations being conducted by law enforcement and cybersecurity experts the city saidpp ppDespite the monthslong timeline for mitigation and recovery efforts the city said last week that it had made significant progress in bringing its systems online and hoped to be at full operational capacity soonpp ppEarly the morning of Feb 28 a cybersecurity breach resulted in all the citys servers and backup servers to be encrypted leaving the city unable to access records and hampering its ability to perform some basic municipal functionspp ppThe incident prompted the city to request a disaster declaration from Governor Greg Abbott and to caution employees to remain vigilant about possible identity theft or fraudpp p