A Night to Remember ... for All the Wrong Reasons Industry: Entertainment The crowd at the St. Louis Muny Theater was buzzing. A summer night, a sold-out show, and the city’s biggest event of the season. Then, silence. The stage lights went dark. Ticketing froze. The soundboard refused to load. The production crew scrambled. No one knew what was happening. Behind the scenes, hackers had already locked every system with ransomware. No one could check guest lists, ticket scans, sound cues, or...

Industry: Municipal Government- - A City Under Siege On March 22, 2018, the bustling city of Atlanta, Georgia, became the victim of a devastating ransomware attack. The perpetrators deployed the SamSam ransomware, encrypting a significant portion of the city's data and demanding a ransom of approximately $51,000 in Bitcoin. One night, the entire IT department of Atlanta’s city government received the same terrifying email: “We own your network. Pay up, or watch it burn.” By morning, every...

Industry: Water Treatment Facility A Close Call in Oldsmar, Florida In February 2021, the city of Oldsmar, Florida—a community of approximately 15,000 residents—faced a chilling cyber threat that could have had catastrophic consequences. An unidentified hacker infiltrated the city's water treatment facility's computer system via a remote access software called TeamViewer. Once inside, the intruder attempted to increase the amount of sodium hydroxide (lye) in the water supply from the standard...