Baltimore city council forms committee to examine ransomware attack response

Ten days after Baltimore was hit with a ransomware attack that has effectively shut down large swathes of the city’s computer network the city council has created the Committee on Cybersecurity and Emergency Preparedness to examine how the municipality dealt with the situation.

Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott announced the committee at a May 16 press conference, The Hill reported. However, the city still does not have an ETA on when full services will be restored. The lone bright spot has been that the city’s emergency services sector was not hit.

The services affected include paying some utility bills, property taxes, real estate transactions and the city has been unable to pay some contractors for work completed, The Hill said.

Baltimore’s government computer system was hit with Robbinhood ransomware on May 7 shutting down most of the city’s servers and forcing the city council to cancel meetings. The Baltimore Sun obtained a copy of the ransom note which contained an a la carte demand list asking for 3 bitcoins, about $17,600, to decrypt individual systems or 13 bitcoins, about $76,000, to decrypt all the city’s systems. The city had four days to pay, but declined.