The North St. Paul City Council called an emergency meeting Monday and hired cybersecurity experts to investigate a recent cyberattack on the city’s Police Department.
In a unanimous vote with two council members absent, the city hired the McDonald Hopkins law firm to provide legal services and approved a contract with a cybersecurity company to conduct a forensics investigation under the direction of the law firm.
The attack comes to light as St. Paul continues to deal with the fallout of an attack discovered late last month and forced city services to go offline.
It was not immediately clear when the Police Department breach occurred, but correspondence indicates the city reached out to McDonald Hopkins in July to respond to a “business email compromise” at the North St. Paul Police Department.
The attack may have resulted in disclosure of personal and/or health information, according to a July 23 letter from McDonald Hopkins to City Manager Brian Frandle.
Monday’s vote clears the way for Arete to perform an analysis of available email logs to look for malicious behavioral patterns, evidence of compromise and determine if any sensitive information was accessed or stolen.
North St. Paul will pay Arete $5,000 for the analysis, but is hoping that its insurance through the League of Minnesota Cities will cover everything beyond the city’s deductible.
The council had called Monday’s meeting to “ensure that all cybersecurity threats have been addressed and that the attack cannot continue,” the lone item on Monday’s agenda said.
