Hamilton not paying ransom but recovery from cyberattack ‘won’t be cheap,’ says mayor

Hamilton mayor Andrea Horwath revealed the city isn't paying a large ransom to those behind a recent cyberattack that has crippled some operations for almost three weeks.

Hamilton’s mayor is reassuring residents the city is not paying a ransom to those behind the recent cyberattack that wreaked havoc on municipal operations for almost three weeks.

Andrea Horwath wouldn’t reveal what figure was demanded but did characterize the amount as a “whole hell of a lot of money.”

She also confirmed that, regardless of the ransom, the cost of recovering systems impacted by the attack “won’t be cheap.”

“We don’t want to do things on the cheap, we want to make sure we’re doing what we need to do to protect our city (and) to protect the interests of our residents,” Horwath explained. “When the time comes that we’ve completed all of that work it’s something that we are going to be able to tally up … to provide the specifics.”

At various points during Friday’s update, Horwath was cautious about disclosing too much, admitting they are dealing with “hardcore stuff” from some “pretty sophisticated” criminals.

“I know that’s a sore spot for folks, I get that. I wish I could just kind of have every answer and just put it all out into the metaverse, but we don’t want to put our city at any more risk,” she said.

City manager Marnie Cluckie said staff and third parties continue to work “around the clock” to get systems back online and insisted a forensic analysis suggests no personal data tied to residents has been compromised.

“If we find otherwise, we will let folks know right away, we have an obligation to do so,” Cluckie said. “The city’s data was encrypted, but again, there is no evidence to suggest that the personal data was removed from the systems and that it’s compromised.”