Cape cyberattack recovery cost 'easily' in tens of thousands

It’s been more than three weeks since the cyberattack on Cape Girardeau city government’s computer system, and city officials say it will still be several more weeks before the system is once again fully functional.

Meanwhile, the head of the city’s finance department said the cost to restore the system will “easily” amount to tens of thousands of dollars. A report on the system restoration cost will be presented to the City Council next month, according to Cape Girardeau finance director Victor Brownlees.

“I have a very small IT (information technology) department, and they’re putting in additional hours,” Brownlees told the Southeast Missourian on Monday. “Our IT manager is salaried, so he won’t get any additional pay, but I have other staff working extra on this who will have to be paid.”

In addition, Brownlees said the city is working with an external IT firm “providing more technical details and support than we could possibly employ people to do. They’ve been working in the background now for the last few weeks rebuilding our servers so there will be a cost to that.”

On top of that, he said a forensics IT company will also do a full analysis of the network “to clean it and make sure it’s OK to use again.”

Between overtime and the cost of outside computer consulting firms, the additional expense to the city “is not insignificant, let’s put it that way,” Brownlees said, adding he hopes insurance will cover most of the recovery costs.

“As you would expect, I want to maximize the insurance coverage and limit the actual cost to the city,” he said.

The attack on the city’s computer system was discovered the weekend of Jan. 18 and 19.

“We became aware of it Sunday the 19th,” Brownlees said. “I check my emails regularly and it was on that Sunday morning I received an error message and it became apparent there was a problem with the system.”

The FBI is conducting an investigation into the cyberattack in an effort to identify its source and motive. Brownlees said he cannot comment on what investigators have discovered to date.

“Once we have the final report, once the forensic analysis has been carried out, then there will be more details coming out, hopefully sooner rather than later,” he said. “But right now we’re still in the middle of the recovery phase.”

As of this week, city employees once again appear to have access to their email files.

“We also have access to a lot of other files that we need on a daily basis,” Brownlees said. “Those are usable again.”

Efforts are underway to restore the city’s enterprise resource management system, which Brownlees said should be up and running in another week or so.

For an updated report on the computer system’s status and the impact the cyberattack is having on various city services, visit the “Latest News” link on the city’s website, www.cityofcapegirardeau.org.

Do you crave business news? Check out B Magazine, and the B Magazine email newsletter. Check it out at www.semissourian.com/newsletters to find out more.