City of Fort Worth falls prey to a cyberattack

Fort Worth, Texas - The City of Fort Worth has recently found itself in an undesirable predicament, having been subjected to a cyber-attack believed to be a reaction to the state's stance on gender-affirming care.

Suspected cybercriminals have reportedly infiltrated and extracted data from a specific website used internally for tracking city work orders. Despite the seriousness of the breach, city representatives have confirmed that no confidential or sensitive data has been jeopardized in the infiltration, as per Dallas Metro News.

This cyber invasion was exposed on June 23rd when a threatening post implying a successful hack of the city’s website was reported to the City’s Information Technology Solutions Department. Upon investigation, it was discovered that the stolen data publicized online stemmed from an internal tool rather than from the city's publicly accessible website.

In a press conference on the following day, the city's Director of IT Solutions, Kevin Gunn, provided further details about the breach.

“The City of Fort Worth has confirmed that the posted information did originate from our computer systems, however the data came from a website that our workers use to manage their maintenance activities. Not from the city’s public facing internet website,” Kevin Gunn stated in a recent news conference.

Adding to the complexity of the incident, it's suspected that the cyber criminals managed to gain access to this internal site by stealing necessary credentials, likely from city employees.

In a concerning development, city officials confirmed that the cyber culprits were able to download file attachments linked to the work orders in the system. Despite the ongoing investigation, Fort Worth remains committed to the security of its digital infrastructure.

“Those attachments include things like photographs, spreadsheets, invoices for work performed, PDF documents, emails between staff and other information related to work orders,” Gunn elaborated.

Fort Worth's Information Technology Department recently assured that any data stolen during the attack is of a nature that would be subject to disclosure under a Freedom of Information Act request, easing fears of compromised privacy.

“No indication that any other systems were accessed, nor any other evidence of sensitive information such as social security or banking information was accessed or released,” Gunn said.

The investigation has led officials to suspect that the group known as SeigeSec was behind the cyber-attack. The stolen information was subsequently disseminated on platforms such as Telegram and Twitter.

Fort Worth's assessment suggests that the main motive of the group was to publicly shame the city.

“We have decided to make a message toward the U.S. Government, Texas happens to be one of the largest states banning gender-affirming care and for that we have made Texas a target,”the post stated, as quoted by the city.

This unfortunate data leak is the latest in a series of cyber-attacks affecting Texas, following a severe malware attack on the City of Dallas in May that hindered the city's online systems for several weeks. Unlike the previous incident, there has been no ransom demand linked to this cyber attack, and the city's IT department has found no evidence of file encryption.

In the aftermath of the breach, the city's IT department acted swiftly by revoking access to the compromised website.

“We have forced all the users to reset their passwords, and additionally we are continuing to review this volume of information to make sure we fully understand the scope and depth of this incident,” Gunn declared.

As the investigation continues, the city remains unsure of how the attackers obtained the login details or the exact motives behind the group's actions.

The City of Fort Worth has mobilized local law enforcement, federal agencies, and cyber forensic experts in a comprehensive effort to investigate this incident and avert similar situations in the future.