Baltimore ransomware nightmare could last weeks more, with big consequences

Enlarge / Days after Mayor "Jack" Young took over for disgraced Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, ransomware took down Baltimore City's networks. It may be weeks or months before things return to normal-and "normal" wasn't that great, either, based on the city's IT track record. (credit: Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images)

It's been nearly two weeks since the City of Baltimore's networks were shut down in response to a ransomware attack, and there's still no end in sight to the attack's impact. It may be weeks more before the city's services return to something resembling normal-manual workarounds are being put in place to handle some services now, but the city's water billing and other payment systems remain offline, as well as most of the city's email and much of the government's phone systems.

The ransomware attack came in the midst of a major transition at City Hall. Mayor Bernard C. "Jack" Young assumed office officially just days before the attack, after the resignation of former mayor Catherine Pugh, who is facing an ever-expanding corruption investigation. And some of the mayor's critical staff positions remained unfilled-the mayor's deputy chief of staff for operations, Sheryl Goldstein, starts work today.

To top it off, unlike the City of Atlanta-which suffered from a Samsam ransomware attack in March of 2018-Baltimore has no insurance to cover the cost of a cyber attack. So the cost of cleaning up the RobbinHood ransomware, which will far exceed the approximately $70,000 the ransomware operators demanded, will be borne entirely by Baltimore's citizens.

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