Southold Town to spend $500K to boost cyber security

Southold Town will spend $500,000 to bolster cyber security following the ransomware attack that knocked out town servers for nearly two weeks, Supervisor Al Krupski said. 

“We just did bond money for a big project for security, and we’ll be embarking on that now,” Mr. Krupski told The Suffolk Times on Tuesday, Dec. 16. “I think we’ll have a much better system because of the learning experience that we got here also.”

The supervisor said that most systems have been restored since the Nov. 24 cyber attack.

The money to support the town’s information technologies department overhaul and upgrade the servers was unanimously approved at the Town Board’s Nov. 18 regular meeting. The upgrades had been discussed throughout the year, Mr. Krupski said.

The supervisor did not provide any update about the investigation into the breach. State and county partners are working with Southold police to determine the source of the attack.

The town’s IT department will put together a document outlining how the ransomware was initially discovered and how departments can proactively respond to any similar issues in the future. The supervisor hopes the document will be ready to share before the new year.

“IT took all of the right steps and we had great partners who stepped up and helped us without delay,” Mr. Krupski said. “And I think that led to our success in restoring our systems. For the most part, we’re restored.”

Several departments in Southold are heavily dependent on paper, which Mr. Krupski said worked to the town’s advantage in the midst of the cyber incident. Additionally, the way the town’s data is stored helped ensure its recovery. 

The town is in the process of collecting the 55 laptops loaned to the town by the Department of Homeland Security during the incident. 

Mr. Krupski said the cyber attack experience was “quite an education” for all town partners involved.