MUSCATINE, Iowa — Several government servers were attacked early Wednesday morning including a server used for the city’s finances.
City officials sent out a press release on Oct. 18, which stated several servers were attacked by ransomware at 1 a.m., Oct. 17, including a MUSCOM server and the Springbrook server, which deals with city finances. Other servers were included in the attack but were not specified in the release.
According to the Springbrook website, their products include payroll and utility billing. It’s unclear which products the City of Muscatine uses.
Ransomware is a type of malware that denies access to a server or website until a ransom is paid, according to the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team. It is spread by opening phishing emails or visiting infected websites.
National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center has observed an increase in ransomware attacks across the world.
The release states Muscatine IT staff have been working to isolate the ransomware and restore servers. Police and federal authorities are investigating the attack.
No other information is available.
