EAST GREENWICH—The town is still coming to grips with the extent of the damage done by the cyberattack two weeks ago that critically compromised the town’s systems. Though the quick thinking of IT staff and the employment of third-party contractors helped to mitigate the damages and prevent the need to pay a ransom demanded by the attacker to restore service, some operational difficulties still linger, and may take many weeks to fully correct. The Pendulum caught up with town council president Mark Schwager to get the latest on the ongoing issue.
“Our immediate response was to hire a private company that we had used in the past, and they were on site the next day and are still providing us support,” Schwager said. “We also contracted the Rhode Island National Guard and Rhode Island State Police, who have been involved in the investigation of what happened and have provided us with the resources to increase our security.”
The perpetrator or perpetrators behind the attack are not currently known, and whether or not the town can afford to pursue a comprehensive forensic investigation into uncovering the origin of the attack will likely depend on how much investigative power the State Police and National Guard can volunteer.
“We haven’t delved into the forensic component yet, as we don’t know how much time and money we are willing to spend to that end,” Schwager said. “I am hoping that something can be done by police and the National Guard, but I don’t know how much support they can realistically provide.”
Importantly, verifying the origin of the attack on the town seems to be of far less important than continuing to buffer the defenses of the town’s infrastructure and bring its myriad systems back to full capacity. As is common in such circumstances, the town has been defending itself against ongoing attempts to infiltrate its systems by attacks seeking to exploit the vulnerable state it was left in after the initial intrusion.
“This is going to be a long process. To go through all of our equipment as we determine if it is safe to do. We are operating effectively right now but are not at full capacity,” Schwager said. “We have had evidence of continued attempts to get into our system. Once the idea that you are vulnerable is out there, other players try to take advantage. Thankfully we have beefed up security. But everybody is vulnerable.”
Despite the problems of bringing the town’s systems back online and continuing its defense, the town’s essential IT functions are nearly at full capacity again, largely due to the aid rendered by the private company hired by the town. The company, ePLUS, is a technology venture operated out of Virginia which in part specializes in providing integrated cybersecurity programs centered on both cultural and technological practices that is aimed at mitigating business risk. The group has thus far been instrumental in ensuring the continued security of the town’s most vital cyber infrastructure since the attack.
“They are providing a lot of manpower and have brought people from all over New England. There’s no way we could have done it without them and are still actively using them,” Schwager said.
In all, Schwager believes that much of the cyber-based security improvements that the town council has been proving will have to be sped up due to the attack, though he hopes that the state government will continue along its current path of seeking a top-down solution to the funding and implementing of best practices in that domain.
“We are going to have to accelerate the cybersecurity we’ve been planning on implementing. We have to accelerate that investment. This is a cat and mouse game, where we implement security measures and the attackers figure it out and we implement again,” Schwager said. “We are looking for a statewide approach to this. There is an effort now to get that information out there, because the election system needs protecting, so thankfully the state is very invested in making sure cities and towns are well protected.”
The town council will host a public information session on the impact of the attack and the steps it is taking to mitigate the risks of a future attack sometime in late January or early February. What follows is still anyone’s guess, but it is likely that cybersecurity will rightfully be brought to the forefront of the town’s budget considerations.
“This is now one of those priorities,” Schwager said. “It’s up there with pensions, retirement, infrastructure and school budgets.”
Gloss