'This Is A Criminal Attack': Virus Infects Stratford Servers

STRATFORD, CT — Town business was briefly brought to a halt earlier this month when Stratford’s servers became infected with a CryptoLocker virus.

“This is a criminal attack that involves our own police investigation,” Mike Downes, chief of staff to Mayor Laura Hoydick, said to the Town Council during a report Dec. 14 about the incident.

The attack occurred around 10 a.m. Dec. 11, according to Downes, who said roughly 50 percent of town servers were infected. Stratford’s information technology team and the town’s vendor worked to cut server connections and isolate the infection, preventing the virus from locking Stratford’s data and holding it for ransom.

Efforts to stop the virus affected town business Dec. 11, a Friday, although town email continued to function, Downes said. By early the next day, the systems for police, emergency medical services and first response dispatch were operational. All departments had regained server access by the morning of Dec. 14, a Monday, after the IT team worked through the weekend.

Town employees received new passwords, according to Downes, who said the servers were far more secure after the attack than at its onset due to the installation of new a protection product called Sophos. Data from 2 a.m. to 10 a.m. Dec. 11 was lost, and had to be re-input after the attack.

Connecticut State Police and the FBI were likely to become involved in the investigation, according to Downes.

“We await further details on how the attack entered our system,” he said.