AUGUSTA, Ga. - FOX54 has discovered that more data, another 70 gigabytes, was released by the group claiming responsibility for a cyber-attack against the city of Augusta.
FOX54 broke the story nearly two weeks ago that the City of Augusta had been hit by a ransomware attack. A hacker group calling itself Blackbyte claims to have taken data from the City of Augusta and released about 10 GB of data to verify its claim, which FOX54 was able to independently verify. FOX54 has since confirmed that more data, totaling as much as seven times the original release, was made available over the weekend.
While the City of Augusta works to recover from nearly three weeks of network interruptions, Mayor Garnett Johnson maintains that they have not been in communication with anyone about a ransom to decrypt the city's data. "Augusta is not in communication with this group. As we continue to work diligently to restore full functionality to our systems as soon as possible and to determine whether any sensitive data has been impacted."
On Sunday, Jun. 4, Italian blog SuspectFile claims it has learned via email communication with someone from Blackbyte that the 70 GB would soon be made available. As with the previous 10 GB dump, the files were found hosted on a surface website that can be accessed using any browser, unlike the dark web.
A source for FOX54 independently verified the nearly 70 GB of data was posted, however, some of the links to the new files no longer work. It is possible either Blackbyte pulled the data down, or the website where the files were being hosted disabled the hosting account. Threat analyst with Emsisoft, Brett Callow, also tells FOX54, "it's possible that some files were padded with junk. The City may not know yet what [or] how much was taken. Forensic investigations can take weeks."
The City of Augusta is working on a path to recovery. Another source tells FOX54 that this could involve retaining a professional agency at a minimum cost of around $250,000 to help get the city's network up and running again.
FOX54 spoke with the mayor exclusively on Monday. Johnson says, due to the ongoing investigation, he is unable to provide comment on this leak.
ByLauren Young
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