The City of Long Beach systems were slowly brought back online after a cyberattack that forced them to go offline for 15 days.
The city confirmed that data was stolen but found no evidence that it was a ransomware attack. They did not confirm if a ransom was demanded or paid, however.
According to the city, certain systems were taken offline out of an abundance of caution to disrupt and remove any unauthorized parties from the city's system.
Investigations have yet to determine the nature and scope of data that was taken. The city has pledged to alert residents if their information was exposed.
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Richard Greenberg, president of the Information Systems Security Association of Los Angeles, says cities are often more vulnerable to attacks because systems are not as secured as private industries and often not updated.
“Nobody wants to be running a government where the constituent's data is on their care and all of the sudden it’s released to the public or the world. It’s embarrassing, it shows a failure of due diligence," said Greenburg.
The city of Long Beach has been in contact with the FBI and says it has "significant resources to respond to the network security incident."
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Residents will be notified by U.S. mail if the city determines their personal information was stolen.
