In February, someone hacked into the drinking water system in suburban Tampa, Florida and could ve poisoned it. Thankfully, it didn t get that far.
According to the FBI, the number of complaints about cyberattacks were up to as many as 4,000 per day last year: a 400 percent increase from what they were seeing before the pandemic.
Ransoms paid to cybercriminals are also on the rise up more than 300 percent. What we have to recognize is that these attacks we re seeing right now are absolutely preventable with minimal effort, said Rick Cole, a former CIA hacker and cybersecurity commissioner to the Obama administration. These municipalities need to make cyber a top priority.