Local authorities stated Oct. 4 that the city's IT security experts identified a ransomware virus that infected Englewood's municipal systems and networks.
“By the mid-day of Oct. 6, servers for the Englewood Recreation Center, Englewood Civic Center, Englewood Public Library, Malley Senior Recreation Center were running normally,” stated the city spokeswoman Alison Carney. The Littleton/Englewood Wastewater Treatment Plant servers still required some repair. Englewood IT team received assistance from the city of Denver IT department. The helped to clean and recover damaged equipment.
"All services were working for the community," Carney said. She pointed out that the city did not send any ransom money to the criminals.
Most city employees were allowed to work like usual on Oct. 6 but still, lots of computers were impacted by the malwareю City services will continue to provide proper services possible in such situation," said Eric Keck, city manager.
During Oct 4, the Englewood Civic Center processed payments by check and cash and was unable to accept credit cards. The library was open, though a few functions such as payments due to late returns or putting books on hold, were impossible. The Malley Senior Recreation Center and Englewood Recreation Center were open but also did not accept payments. It was also impossible to register visitors for classes. All mentioned services were fully operational as of Oct. 6.
IT experts investigated and evaluated the level of damage brought to the systems by the virus when it was detected on Oct 3.
“Facts and analyses show that no personal or any other sensitive info of residents and staff was compromised," the statement by the city claimed.
The city's representative explained that during this attack, ransomware virus locked and encrypted some files. But all files were in their places. This is the main difference from other attacks were information could be stolen. All information is not at risk of being taken over by an outside hacker.