Romain Rouillard / Photo credit: FREDERIC SCHEIBER / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
Streetlights in the city of Leicester in England were left on all day following a ransomware cyberattack in early March. The city council promises a return to normal by “the end of next week”.
Street lights lit as if in the middle of the night… in the middle of the afternoon. The city of Leicester, in central England, was recently the victim of a cyberattack, responsible for a series of malfunctions and which is now believed to affect the public lighting system.
In any case, this is what the city’s municipal council explained to Roger Ewens, a resident who noticed the problem. The “central management system” would have been damaged, thus causing “bad behavior” of the street lamps, the municipality informed the local media Leicester Mercury, cited by BFMTV. “We are currently not able to remotely identify faults in the public lighting system,” city services said.
Confidential documents published
The streetlights were therefore placed in “default” mode, which involves keeping the streetlights in the lit position, day and night, “in order to prevent the roads from ending up in darkness”, adds a spokesperson. of the municipal council. The issue should be resolved by “next weekend.” “A certain number of steps are necessary to resolve it and we are working on it as quickly as possible,” promises the municipality.
This cyberattack, which occurred on March 7, wreaked havoc in the city. Confidential documents, including rent statements or applications for access to social housing, were published by hackers who used ransomware. In other words, a link sent by email, seemingly trivial, but the activation of which blocks access to the computer’s files until a ransom is paid. As a general rule, the authorities recommend not paying any money and filing a complaint.