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Sead Fadilpašić

Emergency alert systems across US disrupted following OnSolve CodeRED cyberattack

A person holding a phone looking at a text with warning signs.
  • OnSolve’s legacy CodeRED platform hit by cyberattack claimed by INC Ransom
  • Hack forced Crisis24 to rebuild from outdated backups, permanently losing recent accounts and data
  • Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and 911 Board cut ties with CodeRED, citing citizen privacy concerns

OnSolve, a cloud-based critical-event and mass-notification platform, suffered a highly disruptive cyberattack recently which forced it to sunset its legacy CodeRED environment and move to a new version, as well as losing sensitive data and even a business customer.

OnSolve is a service that helps organizations send urgent alerts and communications via SMS, phone, email, push notifications and more. It is used by state and local governments, the police, and other emergency services. CodeRED is the platform that enables this service.

Crisis24, the company behind OnSolve and CodeRED, recently notified its customers about a “targeted attack by an organized cybercriminal group”, in which it said that data associated with the legacy OnSolve CodeRED platform was “removed from our systems”. It stressed that there is no evidence the data was published online, but added that there is a strong possibility that it might leak.

FBI was notified

“It appears that the impacted dataset may contain contact information of OnSolve CodeRED users: name, address, email address, phone numbers, and/or associated passwords used to create user profiles for alerts,” the notification reads.

“If the same password is used by users for any other personal or business accounts, those passwords should be changed immediately.”

The attack forced Crisis24 to rebuild its service via backup. However, since the backup is more than six months old, the accounts and data generated in the meantime seem to be lost for good.

The attack was claimed by a ransomware operator known as INC Ransom which created a new entry on its Tor data leak site, and added screenshots showing OnSolve customer data.

At the same time, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and the Douglas County 911 Board decided to cut all ties with CodeRED and look for a replacement.

“Our top priority is the privacy and protection of our citizens, which led to the decision to end our agreement with CodeRED,” it said in a press release.

Via BleepingComputer

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