Florida

Pensacola to Pay for ID Monitoring After Cyberattack, Naval Base Shooting

The city's Mayor had no evidence that anyone's personal information was compromised, but said the city would notify people because he believed it was the right thing to do. 

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A Florida city is offering to pay for identity protection monitoring for up to 60,000 people following a cyberattack that crippled Pensacola's computer systems for days.

The News Journal reports Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson said he made the decision after talks with Deloitte, the international professional services company hired to audit the city's cybersecurity issues in the wake of the attack.

Robinson said the city had no evidence that anyone's personal information was compromised, but said the city would notify people because he believed it was the right thing to do.

He said some data was “acquired by the people that hacked us."

Robinson said the city will send out notifications to those who may have had data their data breached. Some of the information could include details on active city employees, pensioners, active customers with online accounts with the city or Pensacola Energy and housing clients. The list is estimated at 60,000 people.

The city was hit by what is known as a ransomware attack in the early hours of Dec. 7. Ransomware is a type of software that infects computers by encrypting data and prevents access until a ransom is paid to the attackers. City officials shut down the computer network to prevent the problems from spreading, which halted online services and the city's phone and email systems for several days.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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