Cyberattack Could Take Weeks To Clean Up: Expert

Saint John city officials have their work cut out for them to recover from a cyberattack, according to one cybersecurity expert.

The city announced late Sunday that it had been impacted by what it described as a “significant” cyberattack.

Staff shut down all of the city’s IT systems, including its website, online payment systems, email and customer service applications.

It also stopped accepting payments for any services it provides, such as water bills and parking tickets, until further notice.

David Shipley, CEO of Beauceron Security, said it will not be business as usual for the city for some time.

“If they’re back up and running in weeks, that would be record time,” said Shipley in an interview Monday.

“If this is as significant as it could be in terms of having to shut down their entire IT structure, there’s a hell of a lot of work that’s going to have to go into getting the lights back on.”

Saint John is just the latest municipality across North America to be impacted by what Shipley describes as an “onslaught” of cyberattacks.

He pointed to recent attacks in Atlanta and Baltimore which brought their IT infrastructure to a grind for weeks or months. In Canada, several municipalities in the Toronto area were all hit by the same organized crime group.

But why are cities like Saint John seen as targets for organized crime groups? Shipley said it is because municipalities traditionally pay any ransoms which are demanded.

“The groups that are responsible for this have made tens of millions of dollars doing this,” he said. “They know that the pain they’re causing is extraordinary so the probability of payment has been high.”

Shipley said the organized crime groups behind these types of attacks tend to rely on two tactics: phishing emails and remote access. While the specifics around the Saint John attack have not been released, he suspects it was related to a phishing email.

“If the group responsible for the Saint John attack is who I suspect it is, they’ve taken their time and crafted their campaign,” said Shipley. “They can sometimes spend months trying to get exactly what they need.”

This is more than just an attack on Saint John, he said, noting the city is intimately connected to the province and other cities.

“I have witnessed attacks on one New Brunswick municipality used to launch attacks on other New Brunswick municipalities,” said Shipley, “so everyone is going to have to up their game as a result of this and work together.”

City officials said Sunday that it is too early to know whether personal information stored on its networks had been compromised. Residents are encouraged to keep an eye on their credit cards and bank accounts and to report any suspicious activity to their financial institution.

Shipley said it is also crucial for the city to share as many details as possible publicly so other organizations can learn from this attack.

“As painful as this is for Saint John, it’s really important that we learn all of the things possible about this attack,” said Shipley.

A city spokesperson declined our request for an interview Monday.