ATLANTA — An Atlanta committee meeting raised questions on whether the city is putting itself at risk for another cyberattack because of budget cuts.
The last attack crippled the city's systems leaving residents unable to pay for water bills and parking tickets. Police resorted to writing reports by hand. Four years since a cyberattack handicapped the city of Atlanta, an expert says it doesn't make sense for the city to be investing less in technology and related infrastructure.
"My initial reaction was: 'they're doomed,'" cybersecurity expert Patrick Kelley, founder of Critical Path Security, said.
Kelley said he was surprised to see funding for Atlanta Information Management drop since the 2018 ransomware attack, based on a report shared with the city's finance committee on March 30.
"Most cybersecurity plans are built on a five-year maturity model," Kelley said. "We're not even four years after the recovery of the ransomware event that cost the city millions of dollars."
Councilmembers also raised questions during that meeting. Chair Alex Wan asked Chief Information Officer Jason Sankey about the declining budget, which is approximately $8 million less since the 2019 fiscal year. Sankey responded to the committee that $10 million more is needed for improvements.
"I think from a technology perspective, we have historically made compromises where, in my professional opinion, we can't or shouldn't because we should be leaning into and investing in technologies," Sankey said.
Given limited resources, Kelley said local governments are already at a disadvantage compared to large corporations when it comes to technology funding.
"They have to operate with the lowest amount of money that they can possibly get," Kelley said of the challenges, "And have to do the most that they can with it."
Yet, he said resources and response time are critical. According to Kelley, it only takes five to six minutes for a ransomware attack to become catastrophic.
"My concern is with these budget reductions, they are probably going to have a catastrophic event with the next year," Kelley said.
11Alive reached out to a spokesperson for the city with more questions regarding the declining budget but has yet to receive a response. During the March 30 meeting, Sankey asked how prepared the city is on a scale of A to F when it comes to a potential disaster. He said he'd give Atlanta a B, adding there's an exercise set for June which will test the city's response.