Weeklong ransomware attack on Oakland government drags on
OAKLAND - 10 days after the City of Oakland experienced a ransomware attack, many of its departments remain shut down to the public.
Emergency services like police and fire are operational. The lobby at the Oakland Police Department is one of few places still open to the public, but there are signs alerting people the computers are down and they have limited services.
"I feel a little bit uncomfortable given the fact that they don't know when this is going to be resolved," said Raymond Highsmith.
Highsmith came to the police department on Friday morning to get information. He said someone stole his license plate about two months ago and racked up a lot of traffic citations in Oakland. He wanted to know many citations and what he can do to fix the problem.
"The parking attendant says 'wow, you've racked up a lot of tickets. They're going to immediately tow your car.' and I'm like 'how many?' No one has an answer. So I'm pretty much just lost, just waiting to figure this out," said Highsmith. "Frustration, fear, I mean I'm scared to drive my car because I don't want to get pulled over and I don't want them to have the wrong information."
Hackers hit the City of Oakland with a ransomware attack last Wednesday. The city declared a state of emergency this week.
A spokesperson emailed a statement to KPIX 5 saying the network outage has impacted many non-emergency systems including the ability to collect payments, process reports, and issue permits and licenses. For example, the planning and building department is closed to the public, so some construction projects are on hold.
"The first order of business is to protect the network, clean it, scrub it, and then rebuild the network and put it back onto the system. We are in that process now. And we believe that next week, we will be more functionally able to provide services to the residents of Oakland," said interim city administrator G. Harold Duffey at a special city council meeting on Thursday.
Highsmith happens to work as an I.T. administrator for a company in Alameda.
"This (kind of attack) ruins most private businesses. The fact that it's happening to the City of Oakland, this is a little disturbing," said Highsmith.
For now, he is driving a backup SUV. He's keeping his car home fearing they'll pull him over and tow it.
"I'm gonna be pretty much stuck like this for a while unless it gets resolved," said Highsmith.