Virginia Cyber Attacks

Infrastructure Affected

Public Safety
Government
Medical
Education
 
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Public Safety

Petersburg 911 Emergency Communications Center (Petersburg City County) & City of Richmond 911 Center (Henrico County)

Breach Type - Hacking, TDoS/DDoS

WTVR
November 7th, 2018
  • Petersburg Bureau of Police 911 Emergency Communications Center experienced influx of calls from states along the southern part of the country
  • Influx due to callers from those jurisdictions calling (804) 777-9815 which was linked to VA 911 by a hacker
  • Police Captain urging public not to use that number
  • The national incident is also affecting City of Richmond’s 911 Center
Read More

 
Malware Shuts Down VA State Police

Breach Type - Hack

The Virginian Pilot
April 26th, 2017
  • Agency shut down email service
  • Malware affects ability to update Sex Offender & Crime Against Children web pages
  • Daily field operations not affected
Read More

 
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Local Government

Hampton Roads Sanitation District, Virginia Beach Independent City

Breach Type – Unknown, Ransomware

The Virginian-Pilot
December 2nd, 2020
  • Ransomware used in cyberattack against sanitation district's network
  • Entire district's computer network was taken offline as safety precaution
  • Officials released a statement advising that customers could still make payments
Read More

 
City of Charlottesville, Albemarle County

Breach Type – Other, Data Breach

Daily Progress
November 27th, 2019
  • Charlottesville, Virginia was victim of cyberattack for second time in a year
  • Third-party software for tax payments was breached
  • Officials unsure how many citizens were affected in the attack
Read More

 
City of Charlottesville, Albemarle County

Breach Type – Phishing, Data Breach

CBS 19 News
September 25th, 2019
  • Over 10,000 utility customers in the Charlottesville area advised by city officials that their information was possibly leaked
  • City advised they were unaware of any misuse of the leaked information, informed affected customers to be safe
  • Leaked information included customer's names, addresses, SSNs, and driver's license information
Read More

 
Spotsylvania County

Breach Type – Phishing, Other

Fredericksburg
August 15th, 2019
  • $600,000 was compromised in a recent phishing scheme within Spotsylvania County
  • Over half of the total sum had been restored due to Virginia State Police's efforts in restorations and investigations
  • The original intercepted payment was meant for a $1.2 Million football field for the local high school
Read More

 
Hanover County Online Payment System, Hanover County

Breach Type - Other, Data Breach

Data Breaches
January 15th, 2018
  • Credit card information had been compromised
  • Hackers intercepted payment information
  • The system was put offline for further investigation
  • Software was completely replaced to prevent this in the future
  • County suspects all payment information was logged for months
Read More

 
Town of Christiansburg, Montgomery County

Breach Type - Phishing, Data Breach

Virginia First
November 29th, 2018
  • Employee emails compromised in phishing scheme
  • Hackers persistently sent phishing emails to Town officials for three months
  • The Town’s customer financial data was possibly compromised in attack
Read More

 
Town of Round Hill, Loudoun County

Breach Type - Other, Data Breach

Round Hill VA
October 20th, 2018
  • Town of Round Hill suffered data breach & destruction of electronic records
  • Data Recovery is ongoing
  • Independent technology consultant hired to perform internal investigation
Read More
Loudoun Now
October 22nd, 2018
  • Town put new security protocols in place
  • All passwords changed and access to servers limited
  • Utility billing files and finance records kept on different system, safe from cyber attack
Read More

 
Department of Environmental Quality, Richmond City

Breach Type - Hack

Richmond Times-Dispatch
June 14th, 2018
  • Website content management system contained vulnerability in software
  • Vulnerability allowed hackers to access system
  • Intrusion detected and quickly detained
Read More

 
City of Richmond

Breach Type - Ransomware

Richmond Free Press
April 6th, 2018
  • Director of Richmond's IT department claims there have been 2-3 ransomware attacks on system
  • All mitigated by IT team, using backups
  • Did not call external contractor
Read More

 
State of Virginia Election System

Breach Type - Hack

USA Today
September 22nd, 2017
  • Russian hackers attempted to infiltrate election systems during 2016 presidential elections
  • U.S. Dept. Of Homeland Security notified states of attempted breaches
  • States that were targeted included some key political battlegrounds such as Virginia
Read More

 
City of Charlottesville website

Breach Type - DDoS

Hack Read
August 12th, 2017
  • Hacktivist group "Anonymous" takes credit for DDoS
  • Hack response to white supremacy protesters hit
  • Website forced to go offline
Read More

 
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Medical

Konikoff Dental Associates Harbour View, Suffolk City

Breach Type – Unknown, Data Breach

WAVY
December 11th, 2020
  • Officials believed data breach caused risk to personal data
  • Cyberattack breach included names, addresses, and billing information
  • Files that were most likely breached were given close examination
Read More

 
Chesapeake Regional Health, Chesapeake City

Breach Type – Unknown, Data Breach

3 WTKR
November 3rd, 2020
  • Healthcare provider was victim of cyberattack over several months
  • Over 23,000 patients were notified that their information may have been accessed
  • Officials reassured victims that financial information remained intact
Read More

 
Inova Health System, Fairfax County

Breach Type – Unknown, Data Breach

Becker's Hospital Review
September 11th, 2020
  • Healthcare system was one of thousands that fell victim to data breach
  • Breach affected more than 1 million private individuals' information
  • Information included patient and donor names, addresses, dates of birth, and phone numbers
Read More

 
UVA Health System

Breach Type - Hack

NBC 29
February 21st, 2018
  • Physician's devices infected with malware
  • Hacker then had access to employee's activity
  • Hacker potentially monitored private data
  • 1,882 patients have been notified of possible data compromise
Read More

 
Professional Dermatology Care

Breach Type - Ransomware

Health Care IT News
August 11th, 2016
  • Professional Dermatology Care notified 13,237 patients of ransomware attack
  • Breach on network server encrypted patient data
  • Hackers' motive was to extract money from the practice
  • It remains unclear if ransom was paid
Read More

 
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Education

Roanoke College, Roanoke County

Breach Type – Unknown, Ransomware

Bleeping Computer
December 22nd, 2020
  • Following cyberattack, IT officials disabled computer network
  • Bad actors utilized ransomware in their hit
  • Officials advised that restoration of shared drives had begun
Read More

 
Fairfax County Public Schools, Fairfax County

Breach Type – Unknown, Ransomware

NBC 4 Washington
September 11th, 2020
  • Bad actors posted private information following cyberattack
  • Leaked information includes disciplinary action information on 15 different students
  • Staff potentially had social security information contained within the leak
Read More
ABC 13 News
October 11th, 2020
  • Hackers have posted stolen data online
  • The nature of the information exposed and volume of data was not specified by Fairfax County public schools
  • Officials states that only subset of individuals including a limited number of students were affected by the attack
Read More

 
King George County Schools, King George County

Breach Type – Unknown, Ransomware

The Free Lance-Star
September 6th, 2020
  • Cyberattack was a limited attack only affecting four computers
  • Data loss was minimal and no server data was affected but affected desk tops were plagued by ransomware
  • The tech team was praised for their response along with its insurer VACORP allowed for a quick and effective analysis and solution
Read More

 
Virginia Wesleyan University, Norfolk City

Breach Type – Unknown, Ransomware

Wavy
December 13th, 2019
  • Wesleyan University victim of ransomware cyberattack
  • University outsourced assistance from cybersecurity firm
  • Law enforcement was notified about affected computer systems
Read More

 
Smyth County Schools, Smyth County

Breach Type – Unknown, Ransomware

The Roanoke Times
October 4th, 2019
  • Smyth County, Virginia school district was victim of ransomware cyberattack
  • FBI and security consultants investigated cyberattack and checked for breaches
  • Attack paralyzed school district computer network, no evidence of data breach
Read More

 
Chesapeake Public School District, Chesapeake City County

Breach Type - Phishing, Malware

WTKR
November 8th, 2018
  • Malware attack responsible for taking Virginia schools off the grid
  • Virus entered network through phishing emails sent to employees
  • Several divisions affected, including Grassfield High School who was impacted the most from the virus
Read More

 
Fredericksburg City Public Schools, Spotsylvania County

Breach Type - Phishing

Fredericksburg
May 8th, 2018
  • Hackers used phishing scheme to infiltrate school's electronic mail and file system
  • Hackers accessed 14 school employees' emails and one employee's files
  • Private information of parents & students potentially exposed
  • Infected emails continually spread throughout Fredericksburg employees for 3 days
Read More

 
Gloucester County Public Schools' Website

Breach Type - Hack

Daily Press
November 6th, 2017
  • Gloucester County Public Schools' website hacked
  • Hackers injected Pro-ISIS propaganda through messages, videos, and images
  • The website was one of 800 school websites targeted in a nationwide attack
Read More

 
Powhatan County Public Schools

Breach Type - Phishing

WTVR
March 20th, 2017
  • Powhatan County Public Schools fell victim to spear-phishing scheme
  • Employee sent W-2 forms to hackers
  • 905 employees potentially affected by breach
Read More

 

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