Father Bill’s & MainSpring was targeted by a ransomware attack

Brockton-based Father Bill's and MainSpring, a non-profit organization providing shelter to homeless, was targeted recently with an attempted ransomware attack. A ransomware attack is a computer virus type that encrypts the user data, and then demand ransom payments for returning back the access.

The Brockton-based non-profit organization that runs downtown homeless shelter announced on June 28, 2019, that it has been attacked by the ransomware virus on Apr. 11, 2019. However, the non-profit organization said that it do not believe anybody's personal information has been accessed or has been stolen. John Yazwinski, Father Bill's CEO & President, said an antivirus software that is used by them has detected and then blocked this ransomware attack in under 30sec. The ransomware didn't lock or encrypt any files or the computer systems.

"There was no exposure. We were able to restore all the files. We have no evidence to believe the files were compromised in any way," said Yazwinski.

Once discovered, Father Bill's and MainSpring disabled immediately all access to the data and then shut down the computer systems, said Yazwinski. However, IT experts of the organization has conducted an internal investigation as per which it has been determined that there was very slight disruption. The IT experts also confirmed that it is safe to continue the work. So the staffs have been able to continue the work without any kind of disruption, added Yazwinski.

Government Technology reported that Yazwinski said "we were able to disable all access to data and network drive. We definitely shut down the system as they went through and searched everything. There was minimal disruption".

Father Bill's and MainSpring reported this incident to the Massachusetts Attorney General's (i.e. Maura Healey) office. The non-profit organization has also published legal notice regarding this incident, and notified those individuals whose private information like Social Security numbers have been stored in agency's systems.

Father Bill's and MainSpring said that "while there is no evidence of data theft, in accordance with Massachusetts state law M.G.L. c. 93H, the Agency mailed notification letters to individuals with known addresses whose private information (i.e. name, Social Security number) was in the Agency's system. Addresses were unknown for 30% of the individuals".

» SPAMfighter News - 7/22/2019