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Featured on Built In: Lessons Learned From a City’s Cyber Attack
Featured on Built In: Lessons Learned From a City's Cyber Attack
When a cyber attack hits a city government, the impact goes far beyond IT systems — it affects essential services, community trust, and the lives of residents. Built In recently featured an article by Andy Maus, Head of Cyber Recovery Services at DriveSavers Data Recovery, with insights and the lessons learned from Minnesota’s City of St. Paul’s security breach.
In the article, Andy highlights how following CISA’s Incident Response Plan Basics can help organizations of all sizes — not just municipalities — prepare for and respond to an attack more effectively. These guidelines stress the importance of planning ahead, establishing clear communication, and ensuring recovery strategies are ready before an attack happens.
Key Takeaways for Organizations
Preparedness Is Essential — It is critical to have a documented and tested incident response plan that clearly defines the roles and responsibilities of key team members. Without an incident response plan, organizations lose valuable time when responding to a cyber attack.
Clear Communication Matters — Both internal coordination and external messaging play a major role in maintaining trust. In the St. Paul event, city officials had to keep employees, residents, and partners informed while recovery efforts were underway.
Guidance Is Available — Frameworks like CISA’s Incident Response Plan Basics outline the incident response process, including preparation, detection and analysis, containment, and recovery. These resources are helpful for all sizes of IT teams, especially those who may not have extensive cybersecurity experience.
Recovery Requires Professional Expertise — Bringing systems back online safely and restoring affected systems after an incident occurs requires both technical skills and experience. It requires specialised knowledge to ensure systems are secure and that data integrity is preserved.
DriveSavers Data Recovery’s Perspective
Firsthand Experience — DriveSavers has supported countless organizations, including municipalities, in the aftermath of ransomware and other cyber incidents. Each data recovery case has reinforced the importance of preparation and having expert resources as part of your incident response plan.
Beyond Recovery — The process of restoring systems and data is a huge part of the challenge; helping organizations rebuild trust with employees, customers, and the public is just as critical to long-term resilience.
Security and Best Practices — While Andy referenced CISA’s Incident Response Plan Basics in the article, DriveSavers also emphasizes aligning with broader frameworks such as the NIST security incident guidelines. Together, these resources provide a strong foundation for organizations to create, test, and refine their cybersecurity incident response strategies and provide a full incident response framework that guides organizations through each phase — from preparation to post-incident activity.
Lessons for All Organizations — The St. Paul case may involve a city government, but the same principles apply to any business, school, nonprofit, etc. A well-prepared incident response plan, guided by proven frameworks and backed by expert recovery services, can mean the difference between prolonged disruption and a smooth return to normal operations.
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