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How a Cyberattack Plunged a Long Island County Into the 1990s


Adding to its vulnerability, Suffolk, like many counties, is running on a so-called old system, an outdated platform that many municipalities either don’t know how to or can’t afford to modernize, Benjamin Voce- Gardner, director of the Office of Counterterrorism. to the New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, which assisted in the response.

Following the attack, Bellone increased the county’s 2023 operating budget by $9 million to fund cybersecurity measures. And last month, Kevin J. McCaffrey, chairman of the Suffolk County Legislature, announced the creation of a subpoena commission to investigate the cause of the hack.

“They’ve tried to describe this as just another kind of disaster they’ve faced, no different from Hurricane Sandy or even Covid,” Mr McCaffrey said. “Hurricane Sandy and Covid were natural actions. This is a failure to go ahead and take the initiative.”

Indeed, several county officials expressed concern about the state of security in the county prior to the attack and said they had been turned away. In June, Judith A. Pascale, the outgoing district secretary, requested a separate firewall for her office, out of concern her office’s data was vulnerable.

Emails between Ms. Pascale and Scott Mastellon, the county’s information technology commissioner, appear to indicate that the specific request was denied. The emails were first reported by Newsday and obtained by The New York Times. (The county objected to the specification and said it provided an equivalent technology but the clerk’s office did not use it.)

“I’m not a crying wolf boy,” Ms. Pascale said. “Everyone, this is a global problem.”

Others defended the county’s response to the current crisis: “This is an attack by an adversary that wants to sow distrust and chaos to use it to steal taxpayers’ money.” ,” Michael AL Balboni, president and chief executive officer of RedLand Strategies, led a 2019 drill training for county leadership. After the hack, Mr. Balboni’s company was rehired to provide guidance.

“At the local government level, you don’t have the resources or capabilities to deal with a national level of attack – and it is unrealistic to expect them to do so,” Mr. Balboni said.

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