Village of Whitefish Bay targeted by cyber security attack

WHITEFISH BAY, Wis. (CBS 58) -- According to a news release, the Village of Whitefish Bay was targeted by a "malicious and sophisticated cyber security attack" on Saturday, July 31.

The Village of Whitefish Bay released details that the village's IT team was alerted to an unauthorized intrusion and immediately took village systems offline and activated cyber threat protocol, engaging third-party experts and law enforcement.

Officials say that a formal investigation is still underway.

However, security experts believe the threat is contained and permitted the Village of Whitefish Bay to resume normal operations on Wednesday, August 4.

The Village of Whitefish Bay is now fully operational and does not anticipate any significant impact to ongoing services.

The release explains that Whitefish Bay maintains a cyber-incident response plan, which allowed the village to quickly identify and contain the threat, secure vulnerabilities and support the investigation with law enforcement.

Authorities say that the attackers may have accessed and encrypted some internal files.

A third-party forensics firm is currently investigating which data may have been compromised and its impact to the community.

The firm will also review additional security measures to help mitigate future attacks of this nature.

The Village of Whitefish Bay says no resident action is required at this time.

Updates on the investigation will reportedly be released over the coming weeks.

If you have specific questions, please contact Village of Whitefish Bay Manager Paul Boening at [email protected] or 414-962-6690 – ext. 116.