The Department of Law Enforcement was hit by a cyber attack on Monday, which affected some of its employees. Cyber Command of the City Hall detected a hack on its systems on Monday.
City officials disconnected the law departments’ computers from the network on Sunday after learning about a cyberattack.
The NYC’s Law Department employs about 1,000 lawyers, its mission is to provide legal services to the people of New York City. “Law Department attorneys draft and review local and State legislation, real estate leases, procurement contracts, and financial instruments for the sale of municipal bonds,” its website says. “There is rarely a major city initiative that is not molded by the Law Department’s staff.”
The City’s Cyber Command has launched an investigation regarding unauthorized access to the Law Departments IT environment.
“The City’s Cyber Command has identified unauthorized access within the NYC Law Department’s IT environment and promptly launched an investigation into the matter,” said spokesperson Laura Feyer.
The City has taken additional security measures to maintain public safety:
“As the investigation remains ongoing, the City has taken additional steps to maintain security, including limiting access to the Law Department’s network at this time,” Feyer added.
NYC’s Mayor Bill de Blasio states there was no indication that any data was compromised in the hack.
“To this hour we have not seen information compromised or a ransom demand,” the mayor said at a virtual news briefing on Tuesday.
It’s unclear if the attack was connected to the ongoing ransomware campaigns in the US, including public agencies and private corporations, and most recently, the Colonial Pipeline, an attack on which has caused gas shortages throughout the US.
