Augusta officials announce partially restored network, three systems remain affected

Augusta officials announced Tuesday that many of its functions are now fully operational, following a May 21 cyberattack on the city's network.

In a news release, officials said Augusta worked with its internal IT team and outside cybersecurity specialists to respond to the network disruption.

"Our ongoing investigation has determined that an unauthorized actor gained access to certain Augusta computer systems," according to the release. "At no point have Augusta or its representatives communicated with the cybercrime group that claimed responsibility for this incident."

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A hacking group called BlackByte originally claimed responsibility for the attack, releasing a number of alleged city documents.

Augusta reset all user credentials on June 8 and re-activated the internet on June 9, according to the release.

Officials said many of Augusta's functions are fully operational, but three major systems are still in the process of being restored. Those systems are the Geographic Information Systems (GIS); the Enterprise Asset Management System, which depends upon GIS; and the Solid Waste Operations System.

The city did not clarify how each system is still affected, but said they are expected to be restored within the next two weeks.

"A thorough investigation is ongoing to determine the extent to which any sensitive personal information was impacted by this incident," officials wrote in the release. "Augusta remains committed to taking all appropriate actions to notify any impacted individuals identified once a determination is made."

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Augusta network partially restored following cyberattack