Cyber Security

In the last few decades, urban schools in Kansas City have not kept up with other schools in their ability to offer high-level courses in computer science and coding. The nonprofit WeCode/KC has been providing primarily minority students access to education in a variety of tech areas for five years, in an effort to address this aspect of the digital divide.

The state is enacting a plan to overhaul its online security of sensitive information, partly in response to an attack on Kansas' courts last year.

The city says nearly 77,000 records, including incident and traffic reports, were breached during the attack.

Problems caused by the attack included delayed or lost lab results, medication errors, and an absence of routine safety checks to prevent potentially fatal mistakes, doctors and nurses told reporters.

Ascension operates hospitals, clinics and nursing homes in Kansas and Missouri. But it's released little information on the cyberattack, including whether private medical information was compromised.

Por casi dos semanas, el sitio web municipal y unos servicios de la ciudad de Kansas City han estado parcialmente inoperativas, y la ciudad no dice exactamente por qué. Los funcionarios aún están investigando el alcance del asunto.

Kansas City’s municipal website and some city services have been down for nearly two weeks, and the city won’t say exactly why. Officials are still investigating the full scope of the issue.

The U.S. Department of Justice named Dimitry Khoroshev and his company, LockBit, in a 26-count indictment on Tuesday. LockBit has claimed responsibility for the hack on Wichita city computers.

Several Kansas City government offices have been targeted by cybercrimes in recent months. A local cybersecurity adviser with the Department of Homeland Security explains why high-profile attacks are growing more frequent, and how agencies and individuals can avoid becoming victims.

Kansas City residents cannot access the KCMO.gov website or 311 portal after they were taken offline over the weekend. The outage is affecting municipal court, city council, and KC Water.

The recent ransomware attack which closed the Jackson County Assessment, Collection and Recorder of Deeds offices is just the latest in a series of cyberattacks against government offices in the Kansas City metro over the past few years. Federal advisors say attacks against municipalities are growing in number, often because they’re the easiest targets.

State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick, a Republican, issued an audit of Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft's office and downgraded his administration to the second-lowest rating because it illegally withheld documentation about election cybersecurity. Ashcroft, who is also a Republican, criticized the report as a political attack.