Suffolk Exec Says 'Cyber Intrusion' Has Hallmarks Of Ransomware

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said the county's webpages and email were shut down last Thursday to assess a cyber intrusion after some unusual activity, now believed to involve malware.

County officials shut down web and email functions while the intrusion was monitored using an "abundance of caution," Bellone told reporters at a press briefing in Hauppauge on Tuesday.

Investigators say the attack has "all of the hallmarks of ransomware," though no specific demand has been made of the county, Bellone said, adding that the ongoing probe is still in its early stages.

"The reality that we are living in today is that we are in the digital age," he said. "We are in the information age. The notion of hacking your computer has been around a long time, but the sophistication with which threat actors are operating grows every single day as this technology evolves."

"But, unfortunately, no organization public or private is immune from these types of cyber intrusions," he added.

The county's infrastructure has been "hardened" over the years, and county officials are continuing to provide their employees "with the tools to help afford and mitigate these types of incidents," Bellone said.

In the meantime, the county is launching a temporary landing page with information for each county department and agency, as well as directions for residents to access frequently used services.

Officials are also activating a number of county email addresses that are commonly used by the public "to further enhance the flow of communications," Belllone said.

Investigators do not believe that there was a privacy breach involving county residents or employees, though it is being investigated, officials said.

The county has been able slog on with its regular business despite the cyber attack.

Parks and beaches are open and operational, buses are running, the Labor department is taking complaints, and Public Works has been making site visits and workers are filling potholes.

One hundred and 70 new police recruits just started at the police academy and a vaccination clinic was held on Tuesday.

"While our internal processes may be a little different, residents can still expect the same services they rely on," he said.

Critical safety functions like 911 have remained up and running throughout the investigation.

The police department has partnered with the state police who have given emergency responders telecommunications equipment and internet access, and they have been helping with arrest processing and fingerprinting.

The county's websites remained down on Tuesday, and some departments were using personal email and cellphones to communicate with members of the press.

Bellone spokeswoman Marykate Guilfoyle told Newsday on Sunday that several county agencies, like the police department, are keeping records manually, using paper, fax machines, and other methods so that residents can still access what they need, said Guilfoyle, adding, "We’re kind of doing it a little ‘old school’ right now, probably the way the county was run in the 90s."

She could not say how long the county's websites would be down.

Suffolk Legislature's Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey lauded the county's employees for adapting during the outage. He said that he expected to have his email back up by the end of the day.

"I'm keeping my fingers crossed," he added.

County Internet Technology consultant Mike Balboni of Redland Strategies said that in terms of cyber threats there has been a 144 percent increase in ransomware attacks between 2020 and 2021 and 60 percent of them are focusing on Americans. Balboni had been hired to train the county's employees in a tabletop exercise previously and it put them on "very good footing to respond to this particular incident."

Scott Mastellon, the commissioner of the county's Department of Information Technology, said that there was a lot of training and planning before to the attack, and the county has put together a good team of experts.

"We are here and we are leveraging everything else to effectively take care of things," he added.