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The City of St. Paul is in the midst of an urgent cybersecurity operation after hackers posted 43 gigabytes of stolen data online, following a ransomware attack that began within the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
Mayor Melvin Carter confirmed Monday that the hackers leaked the data after the city refused to pay ransom demands. While the stolen files reportedly do not contain core system data such as payroll, licensing, or permitting, officials caution that personal documents, including copies of IDs, may be among the compromised materials.
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The city maintains more than 153 terabytes of stored data, leaving uncertainty over whether the breach extends beyond the files already released.
‘Operation Secure St. Paul’ in Full Swing
In response, the city launched Operation Secure St. Paul, a large-scale effort to reset passwords and update security software on employee devices. The Roy Wilkins Auditorium has been transformed into a temporary password-reset hub, with 80 laptops set up to process 80 employees every 30 minutes. By late Monday, more than 2,000 of St. Paul’s 3,500 employees had completed the process. Cybersecurity experts advised the in-person resets to verify identities, secure devices, and ensure proper installation of new security protocols.
Mary Gleich-Matthews, Deputy Chief Information Officer, stated that they want to be extremely careful. This physical process helps confirm employee identities and ensures their devices are clean and secure.
Employees with take-home laptops undergo an additional step to install updated cybersecurity software. The goal is to have all active staff updated by Tuesday evening.
Federal Agencies Join Investigation
The breach was first detected on July 25, prompting the immediate shutdown of affected systems. Federal and state agencies, including the FBI, Homeland Security, and the Minnesota National Guard, are assisting in the investigation and recovery efforts.
Mayor Carter emphasized that no ransom will be paid and that advanced security software has already been installed on more than 90% of city devices. Some systems, such as cloud-based services, remain unaffected, but others have reverted to manual processing while the recovery continues.
City employees are being offered 12 months of credit monitoring and identity theft insurance as a precaution. Officials have not provided a timeline for when all systems will be fully restored.
