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(ABC 6 News) – All of Mower County’s departments are able to perform their core job tasks now, but the ransomware attack is a reminder to officials across the state of the importance of defending data online.
Information system security architect for Olmsted County, Michael Stier, said cyber attacks are bound to happen, which is why it’s critical for organizations to be ready and have plans in place for when an attack ensues.
“Eventually there will be an incident our job is to make that incident small and isolated as possible,” Stier said.
RELATED: Mower County eyes new records management system following ransomware attack
The city of Rochester, Olmsted County and the state of Minnesota trained and retrained employees on how to react if its systems are targeted by a ransomware attack.
“What’s really critical about these table top exercises is it helps departments identify gaps in their COOP (continuity of operations program) for when a cyber security incident were to happen,” Stier said.
When the ransomware attack hit Mower County, 911 calls were reverted to Freeborn County as well as a report for a stolen gun.
Now, Mower County is looking to run its county records through a cloud server which cyber security expert and CEO of CyberCatch, Sai Huda, said should not be the only means of defense for an organization.
“Ransomware can still get in through a user who may download the ransom by clicking on a phishing email for example or the attacker basically cracks that person’s password,” Huda said.
RELATED: Cyber security expert weighs in on Mower County ransomware attack
Mower County staff said they paid a fee get the county’s services back online. But cyber security experts said paying to regain access to your systems doesn’t necessarily mean you’re out of the woods.
“Even if they return to you a copy of the data, how do you know they haven’t made another copy of it,” Huda said. “That’s again, not foolproof.”
It’s for these reasons cyber security experts emphasized the importance of tools like multi-factor authentication for users, and to have backup plans in place.
Mower County staff said they are implementing enhanced IT security measures and even pushed portions of that plan forward to improve resilience moving forward.
