The city of Auckland in California under cyberattack by Mount Program
The American city of Auckland, located in the state of California, is still recovering from the cyberattack of the Mount Program on February 8, which turned off most city services. As a result, the police had to return to traditional patrol methods – using portable radio stations, pens and paper. Harold Duffy, who temporarily acted as the head of the city administration, had to declare an emergency regime in Auckland.
The hackers responsible for the attack leaked almost 10 gigabytes of confidential government files on their official extortion leakage, and threatened to reveal even more in the coming weeks. The Play extortion gang is the latest culprit, and the city has become its 42nd victim since it became active in June 2022.
Odland, spokesperson for the city, did not report the amount of ransom requested by Play Group in exchange for the stolen data. Nevertheless, the city administration did not pay any ransom. The stolen data, posted on the Play website, consist of city lists over the last 12 years. This includes thousands of current and past social insurance and driver’s license numbers, dates of birth, home addresses of urban services, and other citizens.
Personal files belonging to the mayor of Auckland and his predecessor were also published. Stolen documents include hundreds of records related to accusations of unlawful police actions, and scanned bank statements from the city’s operating account. In response, the city administration stated, “We are actively notifying persons whose data is defined as publicly available, and also provide all resources to protect personal information.”