A group of hackers claimed responsibility for the cyberattack in Oakland and announced a data breach

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A group of hackers claimed responsibility for the February ransomware attack on the city of Oakland and announced their intention to release the hacked data to the public.

Philadelphia-based cybersecurity analyst Dominic Alvieri said on Twitter Thursday that the Play Ransomware hacker group said it was responsible for a ransomware attack launched against the city of Oakland on Feb. 8 that affected several city services over a period of time this month. .

Alvieri tweeted a screenshot obtained by cybersecurity news site Bleeping Computer that showed the hackers had access to “private and personal sensitive data, financial, government, etc. ID cards, passports, complete employee information.” The screenshot also said that the data contained information allegedly proving human rights violations.

In a statement Friday, the city of Oakland said it was aware of the impending data breach, but did not say who received the information.

“[The city] It has recently become known that an unauthorized third party has obtained certain files from our network and intends to release the information,” Oakland said in a news blog post Friday. “We are working with third party professionals and law enforcement on this matter and are actively monitoring unauthorized third party claims to verify their validity.”

The City of Oakland declared a state of emergency on Feb. 14 to quickly mobilize resources to recover from the attack, which impacted people’s ability to pay parking and taxes online or contact multiple city departments by phone.

According to cybersecurity firm Avertium, Play Ransomware is a group of ransomware that began operating in June 2022 and has directed attacks against several other known targets, including the Argentine judiciary of Córdoba and the German hotel chain H-Hotels. The group’s attacks were focused on targets in Latin America, India, Hungary, Spain and the Netherlands.

Alvieri and the city of Oakland did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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