Gradually and carefully is how the city describes Hamilton’s recovery from a sprawling ransomware attack that has infected municipal IT networks, kneecapped operations, hobbled services and locked staff out of files.
In the aftermath of the Feb. 25 attack, city leaders are asking for patience as a team that includes outside experts deals with the fallout, which has touched everything from transit scheduling, to building permits, city phone lines, public health programs and dog licences.
City manager Marnie Cluckie said the cyberattack recovery effort promises to be a “long journey” despite progress being made every day.
Eric Tuck, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 107, says bus drivers are ‘managing’ the lingering effects of the Feb. 25 cyberattack but the circumstances ‘can be trying at times.’
Charles Finlay, executive director of Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst, says it’s not “unrealistic” to consider Hamilton as “on the front lines of a global cybersecurity conflict.”