By Brandi Makuski
STEVENS POINT — The cyberattack that disrupted Stevens Point government operations last week appears to have been an attempted ransomware attack, but city officials say it was stopped before the ransomware could execute.
The city disclosed the finding Tuesday, Sept. 29, nearly a week after someone gained unauthorized access to the municipal computer network early Sept. 23.
“We now believe that the City was a target of a ransomware attempt,” Mayor Mike Wiza said in a statement. “Our existing security, monitoring and professional staff were able to block the attempt before it was able to execute.”
The investigation remains ongoing, but the city said it has found no evidence that resident data was compromised or that confidential information belonging to residents or employees was captured.
Tuesday’s announcement provides a clearer picture of what happened after several city servers began experiencing problems early Sept. 23.
City IT employees initially described the incident as a cyberattack in internal emails sent to staff and council members that morning. But a public statement from the mayor’s office later described the problem only as “intermittent technology issues.”
The following morning, Wiza said officials had not yet confirmed whether the problems were caused by a hack or cyberattack.
By Friday, the city confirmed someone had gained unauthorized access to its network and said IT staff had successfully cut off that access.
Since then, city staff have been working with Wisconsin Emergency Management and other agencies to determine what happened and what was affected.
Several city devices were initially quarantined because they were considered a potential risk to the network. Officials now say those devices were later determined not to have been affected.
The city has not said how someone gained access to its network, who may have been behind the ransomware attempt or how long the unauthorized access lasted.
Recovery moving faster than expected
The city also appears to be recovering faster than initially expected.
On Friday, Wiza said it could take about two weeks before city operations were fully restored. Tuesday’s update said officials now hope to return to normal activities later this week or early next week.
Emergency services and other critical city functions remain operational, although some city services may continue to experience disruptions as systems are cautiously brought back online.
Department heads are continuing to meet with support teams as the recovery moves forward.
The city activated its Emergency Operations Center on the evening of Sept. 23 after technology problems continued throughout the day. Police, fire and utilities personnel were initially brought together before the activation was expanded to include department heads across city government.
Emergency Management Coordinator Justin Malin said last week the EOC was being used to coordinate resources between departments and make sure critical services remained available while the city dealt with the computer problems.
UW-Stevens Point, Portage County IT staff, city and university emergency management personnel, Wisconsin Emergency Management and other agencies have assisted the city during the response.
