Mayor of Newburgh confirms cyberattack, incident still unresolved

NEWBURGH – Newburgh Mayor Torrance Harvey has confirmed that the city was the victim of a cybersecurity attack earlier this week.

It is believed that hackers demanded confidential information and access to city operations as ransom.

“We have law enforcement, the FBI and some highly trained (IT) experts looking into this,” Harvey said. “We’re surprised because the group, whoever it is, usually targets big cities. I’m not sure why we’re on their radar. Thank goodness we recently purchased cyber insurance.”

Cyber ​​insurance can typically help protect a municipality or business from losses caused by a cyber attack and can cover costs resulting from data and network breaches, including theft of personal information, cyber extortion and other costs. The city announced a network security incident early Tuesday morning that resulted in a temporary disruption of some services.

The city has been unable to process or accept payments for property taxes, water, sewer, sanitation, permit fees or traffic tickets. Services at City Hall and 123 Grand Street have been closed since the break-in and will be closed again Friday. City police and fire emergency lines are not disrupted and emergency calls to 911 are fully operational. Residents can continue to use existing phone numbers and email addresses to contact city departments, but the security incident may have impacted both phone and email systems.

Harvey said he did not know what information had been compromised, when the situation would be resolved or when the offices would be open to the public again.

“The investigation is ongoing,” Harvey said. “People are wondering when City Hall will reopen, but we don’t know. Our technical team is working day and night to figure everything out.”