Härjedalen municipality has been hit by an IT attack.
Hackers have now made demands on the municipality and the crisis risks becoming long-lasting.
– We will not agree to the demands, says municipal manager Gunnel Gyllander.
For almost a week, Härjedalen’s municipal system has been down due to the hacker attack.
The attack has knocked out large parts of the municipality’s operations and all staff computers.
– We don’t know why this is happening right now or why it is the municipality of Härjedalen that has been attacked, says Gunnel Gyllander, who is the head of the municipality.
Called in experts
It was early in the morning of December 23 that it was discovered that the municipality had been hit.
– We quickly understood that it was not a normal malfunction but an attack. External IT experts have been called in and are working to identify damage and get the systems up and running again, says Gunnel Gyllander.
the municipality has activated its crisis management organization and gone into staff mode.
The breach has been reported to the police, the Swedish Privacy Agency and Sweden’s national “Computer Emergency Response Team”.
But until the municipality gained control over the systems, the staff had to be reassigned.
– We work with paper and pencil again. It is very serious, above all in elderly care where we cannot access important information in digital medical records. It’s about health and life, says Gunnel Gyllander.
“Can take several months”
The municipality’s financial and staffing system is also down.
– We have spent the entire weekend planning a new system in elderly care. It is about who will have visits where and what efforts are required. Our goal is for the municipality’s residents to receive the community service that we normally offer.
The municipality still has no details about who is behind the attack.
– We have received a request from hackers, which confirms that it is a hacker attack. We will not agree to the demand.
What is it that the hacker demands?
– I can’t go into that.
Härjedalen municipality does not yet have a forecast for when the systems can function as usual again.
– A few years ago, the municipality of Kalix was hit by a similar attack. There, it took several months before all systems were up and running again. So even for us it can take several months, says Gunnel Gyllander.