Two Swedish municipalities called Mörbylånga and Borgholm have announced that they were affected by a cyberattack incident last week. A data breach has been confirmed by the joint IT system employed by the two municipalities.
The total population of the two Swedish towns reaches more than 25,000 individuals.
Fortunately, the security team from both districts immediately disconnected their systems from the internet as a precautionary measure. Moreover, a third-party cybersecurity team has been employed by both councils as part of their incident management response.
Mörbylånga’s is currently inaccessible to users, but Borgholm’s site is hosted by an external provider, which makes it available to visit. Unfortunately, citizen services such as healthcare services and emails are now unavailable.
Hence, the healthcare providers from both municipalities have adopted a pen-and-paper transaction process. According to the towns’ spokesperson, their staff are adequately equipped with skills to adapt to these incidents.
The two Swedish municipalities might suffer the same incident as Antwerp.
The nature of the attack against the two Swedish municipalities is yet to be revealed. However, some researchers believe that it might be a ransomware attack like what happened to another European city in Belgium.
A town representative explained that it was too early to declare the origin and nature of the attack. Moreover, both municipalities should wait for the investigation to confirm any speculations of espionage or extortion.
Furthermore, the representative reminded its citizens that it could take several days for both councils’ systems to operate again and that the cyberattack possibly compromises municipal firms.
As of now, the most affected entity of the cyberattack is the website of Bornholm Energi. This company provides various infrastructure services, such as household waste and sewage, and produces and delivers heat, electricity, and water.
The company announced that due to the cyberattack, it must shut down its IT systems, meaning that its customers could not reach them via email and would have limited telephone availability.
A company representative did not disclose any details regarding the attack. Therefore, citizens from both municipalities will have to wait for the development of the investigations.