"Suffolk County Starting to Restore Online Services Amid Months-Long Cyberattack"
Suffolk County has suffered from the effects of a massive cyberattack for months, but progress has been made to restore security. According to County Executive Steve Bellone, the clerk's office has been deemed clean and can now start to restore online services beginning with the county website. Social security numbers of 26,000 county employees and driver's license numbers of 470,000 were exposed or accessed during the cyberattack. Bellone stated that the unfortunate reality is that the cybercriminals had more access to the clerk's network than county IT ever did. The ransom demanded was $2.5 million, but it was not paid. Bellone stated that "all departments now have county IT visibility and new, state-of-the-art firewall protection." The true amount of damage caused by the cyberattack is still being measured.