According to the City of Oakland, an unspecified amount of data has been leaked online in a recent ransomware attack.
On Friday, the city confirmed that a third party was able to retrieve some of the data from the attack and planned to release the information publicly.
On Saturday afternoon, the ransomware group PLAY claimed responsibility for the attack and released the data.
Oakland City released a statement about the status of the investigation into the attack:
“While the investigation into the scope of the incident impacting the City of Oakland remains ongoing, we recently became aware that an unauthorized third party has acquired certain files from our network and released some of this information. We are working with third-party specialists and law enforcement on this issue, and are reviewing the involved files to determine their contents. If we determine that any individual’s personal information is involved, we will notify those individuals in accordance with applicable law.
Protecting the confidentially of the information we hold is a responsibility we take seriously. We will continue to work diligently to investigate and address this incident while working with our expert teams to enhance our security even more moving forward.”
On February, 10, Oakland City residents were informed of the attack. This is nine days after the attack began.
Several non-emergency systems were impacted afterward including city phone systems, wireless internet at libraries, and the parking citation center. Most of these systems were back up by Feb. 28.
According to Cybersecurity analyst and security researcher Dominic Alvieri, employee IDs, passports, and other documents were shared in the leak.
