RansomHub gang says it broke into networks of Texas city, Minneapolis agency

Ransomware assaults on two municipal governments have been claimed by a infamous cybercriminal operation accountable for dozens of high-profile incidents in 2024. 

On Monday, the RansomHub operation took credit score for damaging assaults on the town of Coppell, Texas, and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. 

Each organizations have reported widespread know-how points in current weeks that brought about important issues for native residents. 

Town of Coppell — house to greater than 40,000 individuals and positioned about half-hour north of Dallas — launched public notices of know-how points on October 23. Town stated it was “experiencing an outage with our web and several other different programs throughout the Metropolis” making a number of programs unavailable.

WiFi at metropolis services was introduced down by the assault alongside library companies, platforms for permits and inspections, and Municipal Courtroom operations. 

Metropolis authorities cellphone programs had been restored by November 1 however native libraries weren’t again up and operating till November 15. Platforms for utility payments had been restored on November 14 however the metropolis prolonged fee deadlines and stated no late charges or service shut offs would happen. 

A number of different metropolis operations had been reopened by November 20. Metropolis Supervisor Mike Land stated that information on one server “could have included partial, and probably outdated, particular person and vendor info.” 

“We perceive our duty to guard the knowledge we obtain and preserve, and we’re working diligently to research, resolve this incident, and help these impacted,” stated Land.

Town added that it “will proceed to study extra concerning the incident, its root trigger, and who particularly could have been impacted.”

Coppell is simply the newest metropolis in Texas affected by a cyberattack, following current incidents involving Dallas, Fort Value, Richardson and others. 

In Minneapolis: ‘unlucky’ incident

The opposite incident claimed by RansomHub was addressed final week by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. The company has existed since 1883, managing 7,059 acres of parkland and water utilized by 30 million guests annually.  

The board not too long ago warned metropolis residents that its know-how programs “had been attacked by an unknown individual or individuals” final Wednesday. 

“The MPRB ITS division instantly took motion to forestall additional impacts. MPRB cellphone traces are down and MPRB employees are working to find out what info could have been breached/accessed,” the group stated. 

“The MPRB is alerting the general public that their know-how programs had been attacked, they’re experiencing a system-wide cellphone outage, and they’re working to resolve this subject as quickly as doable. For any calls that require a Park Police or Minneapolis Police response, the general public ought to name 911. It’s unlucky that most of these cyber-attacks at the moment are widespread all through the non-public and public sectors.”

Minneapolis was impacted by a ransomware assault on its faculty system final yr in a high-profile incident that uncovered delicate pupil info to the darkish net. 

Along with the Texas and Minnesota incidents, RansomHub stated on Monday that it had attacked two U.S. faculties.

The group has rapidly taken the place of different defunct cybercriminal operations this yr launching tons of of assaults on airports, healthcare organizations, manufacturing corporations and significant infrastructure. 

In August, U.S. legislation enforcement businesses stated about 210 organizations had been victimized by the group since February. 

The group initially emerged within the aftermath of the ransomware assault on UnitedHealth Group — which concerned info on almost a 3rd of all Individuals. When one other ransomware gang folded resulting from legislation enforcement motion, the hackers turned to RansomHub, which supplied the information on the market.

Since then the group has taken credit score for a number of high-profile assaults on telecom large Frontier, Ceremony Assist, British public sale home Christie’s, the town of Columbus, Ohio and one of many oldest credit score unions within the U.S.

Study extra.