BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. – Residents of Bridgeport have been notified city government was hacked in late May of this year. A five-page letter to residents said city IT systems were encrypted by ransomware that lets hackers hold data until a ransom is paid.
City officials have told residents operations were restored and the FBI Cyber Crimes Division was notified immediately.
There is no proof hackers were able to access information, but information that was available includes social security numbers, birth dates, addresses, driver’s license numbers and any other information used to establish any city account.
The city will provide residents with one year of free credit monitoring. Residents will have to notify the city by December 31, 2021 to take advantage of the offer.
“Like many cities and counties across the Country, the City of Bridgeport was recently the victim of a criminal ransomware attack. Upon discovery of the incident, our team promptly engaged leading cybersecurity experts to investigate and notified the FBI Cyber Crimes Division. Based on the results of that investigation, we believe it is possible that the criminals responsible were able to access certain information stored on the City of Bridgeport’s systems.
“Therefore, out of an abundance of caution, the City of Bridgeport is notifying all potentially impacted individuals and offering complimentary credit monitoring and identity protection services.
“The City of Bridgeport takes our obligation to safeguard personal information very seriously. We have begun implementing additional cybersecurity protection procedures and continue to evaluate additional actions to further strengthen our security posture.”