LockBit ransomware attack on the City of Wichita impacted close to 50,000 residents

The City of Wichita in the U.S. state of Kansas said the ransomware attack, which encrypted its systems in May, compromised the sensitive personal information of almost 50,000 individuals.

 

The City of Wichita is the most populous city in the state of Kansas with a population of close to 400,000. As a major industrial hub, it hosts several universities, large museums, theaters, parks, shopping centres, and entertainment venues.

 

In a data security incident notice posted on its website, the City announced that on May 5, several City systems were encrypted by malware and to prevent the malware from spreading across the network, City officials decided to take some of its systems offline.

 

The City worked with federal and local law enforcement authorities to resolve the situation as soon as possible.

 

In a filing with the Office of Maine Attorney General, the City said that its investigation into the cyber security incident revealed that the sensitive personal information of its residents were accessed and acquired by threat actors.

 

The compromised data included names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license numbers. Wichita’s filing with the state regulator revealed that at least 47,784 individuals were impacted by the incident.

 

“As soon as we learned of the incident, we implemented additional security features to reduce the risk of a similar incident occurring in the future,” it said.

 

The City has advised all affected individuals to regularly monitor their credit reports, account and benefit statements and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement authorities, including the police and state attorney general.

 

It has also offered one year of complimentary identity protection and credit monitoring services through IDX to all affected individuals.

 

The LockBit ransomware group listed the City as a victim on its data leak site and gave the group a deadline of May 15 to pay a ransom in exchange for a decryption key. It is unclear whether the City engaged with the hacker group or paid a ransom.