City of Austin IT Network HACKED by Russian Hacking group Berserk Bear Since October 2020, STILL Infected with Malware

  The City of Austin's IT Network has been HACKED and compromised by the state-sponsored Russian Hacking group 'Berserk Bear' since October 2020. The Intercept broke the story on December 17, 2020:

"STATE-SPONSORED HACKERS believed to be from Russia have breached the city network of Austin, Texas, The Intercept has learned. The breach, which appears to date from at least mid-October, adds to the stunning array of intrusions attributed to Russia over the past few months."

Here's the scary part:

"By compromising the network of America’s 11th-most populous city, they could theoretically access sensitive information on policing, city governance, and elections, and, with additional effort, burrow inside water, energy, and airport networks. The hacking outfit believed to be behind the Austin breach, Berserk Bear, also appears to have used Austin’s network as infrastructure to stage additional attacks."

The Intercept reports that Austin's IT network is STILL infected with malware as of December 15, 2020.

The Austin American-Statesman asked Austin City Council for a comment on the report, and they didn't have much to say. Seems like they just want they whole thing to go away. But the grid is still infected the malware. From Austin American-Statesman:

"City of Austin officials remained mostly mum Friday as to whether the city's network had been breached by hackers, declining to officially confirm whether a cyberattack had occurred or to provide any detail on the scope of the reported incident."

"On Thursday, media reports surfaced that Russian hackers had breached the city's network. Austin officials said Thursday evening that they were "working with federal authorities as part of this investigation" and said the city's "critical systems" had not been affected."

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