The city chose not to pay and instead went through the painstaking — and expensive — process of cleaning up the damage from the hack. In addition to the $2 million spent on that process, the city will spend about $300,000 a year on services designed to better protect itself from future cyberattacks.
It’s money well spent if it means keeping city operations running smoothly and securely. Cybercrime isn’t a fading trend; it’s growing, and vigilance will be needed to keep up with the new ways cybercriminals will try to harm entities like the city of Tulsa.
Resolving the ransomware crisis now leaves the city to take on more normal and necessary tasks that had to be put on the back burner for months.
One of those was the Tulsa Police Department’s initiative to start an internal Use of Force Board. Implementation of the board was stalled because important software and electronic records were compromised by the ransomware attack….