City of New Bedford

The City of New Bedford is a municipal government located in the United States, specifically in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It provides a range of public services to its residents, including police and fire protection, sanitation, water and wastewater management, parks and recreation, and administrative functions. As a city, it serves as the primary local authority responsible for enacting ordinances, managing public infrastructure, and delivering essential community services. Its operations are funded through local taxation, state aid, and federal grants, typical for municipalities of its size.

Information technology supports these municipal functions, and the city’s IT environment was highlighted during a ransomware incident on July 4 2019. During that attack, Ryuk malware encrypted files on 158 workstations, which represented approximately 4 percent of the city’s total IT systems. The infection occurred overnight when many systems were inactive, limiting the spread, and critical infrastructure such as emergency services and utilities remained unaffected. Upon discovery, IT staff isolated the compromised devices by disconnecting them from the network to contain the breach.

Faced with a ransom demand of $5.3 million in Bitcoin, city officials offered a counter‑proposal of $400,000, which the attackers rejected. Rather than pay the ransom, the city relied on available backups and proceeded with system restoration, a decision that avoided additional financial loss and demonstrated a preference for recovery over payment. The incident caused manageable operational disruption, with most services continuing without significant interruption, and highlighted the city’s capacity to respond to cyber threats through network segmentation, backup strategies, and incident containment procedures.